FPGA Memory Testing Technique using BIST

The wide use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) in critical applications including, military and airborne applications require fault free operation of the FPGA. In FPGAs, faults can occur in the memory resources, logic blocks, or the interconnects. In this paper, memory faults including Stuck-at, Transition, Address Decoder, Incorrect Read, Deceptive Read Destructive, and Data Retention Faults are analyzed using an optimized March C-algorithm. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this algorithm, a novel Built-in Self Test (BIST) technique to test the embedded SRAM memory of the FPGA is proposed. The proposed technique reduces the test time by approximately half as compared to previously published schemes. The FPGA is modeled in VHDL at the equivalent gate level and the simulations results are generated using ModelSim.