Physical DFT Debug: Reports & Metrics

Reports and metrics

Reports & Metrics for Physical DFT Debug focuses on physical root-cause turnaround, repeat DFT route violations, signoff escape risk. The goal is to convert metric movement into mechanism, owner, and release decision.

A report should support a release decision for physical root-cause turnaround, repeat DFT route violations, signoff escape risk. One headline number is rarely enough without setup tags and bucket-level evidence.

Metric movement

METRIC GRAPH - physical root-cause turnaround, repeat DFT route violations, signoff escape risk

quality metric
  ^
  |                         target
  |                       - - - - - - -
  |                  o after fix + regression
  |              o
  |         o baseline
  |    o regressed run
  +--------------------------------------> closure iteration
    input audit     focused fix      signoff review

Readout:
  - explain what moved, why it moved, and who approved it

Distribution view

PATTERN HISTOGRAM - Physical DFT Debug

pattern count
  |      ***
  |    *******
  |  ***********
  |*************  <- high-volume tail (optimize here)
  +--------------------> pattern buckets
   smoke  stuck-at  transition  diagnosis

Balance quality and tester limits together.

• Track physical root-cause turnaround, repeat DFT route violations, signoff escape risk by context and pattern class.

• Review trend and bucket detail together.

• Keep quality, timing, and power metrics in one dashboard.

• Store each metric next to the artifact and run tag.

DFT deep dive

Physical integration quality decides whether DFT architecture survives implementation realities.

Concept diagram

PHYSICAL DFT FLOW

chain planning -> floorplan placement -> route -> test timing/power validation

Metric graph

ROUTING BURDEN

poor chain order -> longer routes -> more hold buffers

Reports and artifacts

• scan physical wirelength

• congestion heatmap

• test clock skew

• handoff issue tracker

Mini case study

Late scan reorder reduced route detours and eliminated a major shift hold cluster before signoff.

Debug branches

• Correlate chain order with congestion

• Place compression logic near chain clusters

• Keep DFT-PD handoff versioned

Senior review question

Ask: what evidence proves this DFT decision is safe for production?

Key takeaways

• State metric, lot/corner context, and pattern tag with every claim.

• Treat timing, power, and quality as one signoff problem.

Common pitfalls

• Chasing coverage without legality checks.

• Ignoring test-power side effects of pattern changes.

• Debugging silicon without reproducible tags.

Reading reports