Chips: Hughes Selects LogicVision and IBM for Major Satellite Program, IBM Microelectronics Qualifies LogicVision's icBIST in its SA-12 Design System - .25um

EDGE, On & About AT&T, July 13, 1998

LogicVision, Inc., the leader in embedded ATE technology for complex integrated circuits (ICs) and boards, Thursday announced that Hughes Space and Communications Company (HSC) has successfully completed a multi-million gate design using LogicVision's icBIST in IBM's SA-12 (.25 um) process technology.

This complex digital signal processing (DSP) ASIC is one of several to be used in HSC's new Geomobile (GEM) satellite product line. GEM satellites support mobile telephony services, via cellphone size handsets, and employ reconfigurable DSP ASICs that allow rapid tailoring to meet each service provider's needs, even on-orbit. As HSC's first multi-million gate design success neared completion, IBM also qualified and integrated icBIST into its ASIC flow making icBIST the first third-party commercial product of its kind to achieve such a status.

When faced with designing complex ASICs with more than two million gates, HSC reviewed and evaluated companies recognized as best in their respective fields. For testing these complex devices, HSC selected LogicVision's icBIST because it was the only product-level test solution that could address all of its critical business and technical requirements. IBM was selected to supply the ASICs because of its recognized expertise in building and testing reliable, highly complex, multi-million-gate ASICs.

"Built-in self-test is essential for rapid assembly and test of advanced DSP-based satellites," said Brian Clebowicz, manager of HSC's Digital Electronics Operation. "The complexity of our mega-gate designs makes previous test approaches impractical. HSC requires a highly automated, hierarchical test solution that provides at-speed testing with high fault coverage, which is why we chose icBIST from LogicVision. The ability to self-test using a simple initiation sequence and a short test signature, rather than millions of test vectors, makes it easy to employ at all levels of satellite integration."

icBIST addresses difficult timing issues not handled by conventional test approaches, such as testing logic at-speed across clock domains. The automation within icBIST provides the analysis, insertion and verification capabilities required to quickly implement a testable design with an embedded ATE. Once designed into the ASIC, LogicVision's embedded ATE delivers high fault coverage tests at the required speeds for the entire life of the ASIC. HSC can leverage the same embedded ATE to test ASICs, boards, and the digital communication system.

LogicVision and IBM have also completed the integration of LogicVision's icBIST embedded ATE solution into the IBM ASIC design flow for the SA-12 process technology. In 1997, IBM and LogicVision embarked upon a project to qualify icBIST for customer product-level test of designs using the IBM SA-12 design system. Known for its high standards and expertise in the area of BIST, IBM defined requirements and verified results using one of the most comprehensive test designs ever conceived. The requirements included the ability to optimize the coexistence of IBM's level-sensitive scan design (LSSD) structures with LogicVision's BIST structures, unique clocking techniques and special pads, to name a few key examples.

"As the leading supplier of multi-million-gate ASICs, we continue to see a growing number of customers who want LogicVision's product," said Rich Colbourne, senior manager at IBM Microelectronics. "For system customers with complex designs, such as Hughes, the combination of IBM's SA-12 product technology and test methodology and LogicVision's icBIST for product-level test provides unmatched product quality."

"To be selected by both IBM and HSC for these types of challenges underscores the confidence leading system companies and semiconductor manufacturers have in our embedded ATE solutions," said Vinod Agarwal, LogicVision president and CEO. "HSC purchased more than half a million dollars worth of LogicVision's icBIST products and services for the first set of chips. Their initial success demonstrates our ability to satisfy the test requirements for complex ASICs and systems while achieving significant savings in test time and costs."

The Geomobile Satellites Hughes geomobile (GEM) satellites features a 12.25-meter deployable reflector, on-board digital signal processing, circuit switching and digital beamforming. Upon launch, GEM satellites provide instant telephone service to users of portable, cellphone sized handsets. The GEM communications payload contains an on-orbit reconfigurable digital processor that can meet the needs of multiple customers, or adapt to the changing needs of a single customer. The first ASIC design for the digital processor is well over two million gates in size, including over one million logic gates and over 100 small memories.

The IBM SA-12 Process Technology The SA-12 standard-cell and gate-array high-performance ASIC, with 0.25um Ldrawn lithography, is optimized for low 2.5-volt operation with additional optional voltage choices for I/O interfacing. Six levels of metal, five for global routing and one for local interconnects, provide 3.4 million gate array wireable gates on a single die. I/O library elements support multiple industry requirements.