Predicting Shot-Level SRAM Read/Write Margin Based on Measured Transistor Characteristics

Shu Yung Bin, Shih Feng Lin, Ya Ching Cheng, Wen Rong Liau, Alex Hou, Chia-Tso Chao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

An SRAM-array test structure provides the capability of directly measuring the characteristics of each transistor and the read/write metrics for each static random access memory (SRAM) cell in the array. However, the total test time of measuring the read/write metrics takes longer than that of measuring each transistor's characteristics. This paper presents a model-fitting framework to predict the average read/write metrics of the SRAM cells in a lithography shot using only the measured transistor characteristics. The proposed framework is validated through the measurement result of 4750 samples of a 128-bit SRAM-array test structure implemented in a United Microelectronics Corporation 28-nm process technology. The experimental results show that the learned models can achieve at least 97.77% R -square on fitting the shot-level read static noise margin, write margin, and read current based on 2375-sample testing data.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7089307
Pages (from-to)625-637
Number of pages13
JournalIEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems
Volume24
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2016

Keywords

  • Array test-structure
  • SRAM characterization
  • model-fitting
  • process monitor
  • test-time reduction.

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