Online BIST and BIST-based diagnosis of FPGA logic blocks
Abramovici, M.   Stroud, C.E.   Emmert, J.M.
IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems,
Vol. 12 , nr. 12, pp. 1284 - 1294, Dec. 2004


Abstract

We present the first online built-in self-test (BIST) and BIST-based
diagnosis of programmable logic resources in field-programmable gate
arrays (FPGAs). These techniques were implemented and used in a roving
self-testing areas (STARs) approach to testing and reconfiguration of
FPGAs for fault-tolerant applications. The BIST approach provides
complete testing of the programmable logic blocks (PLBs) in the FPGA
during normal system operation. The BIST-based diagnosis can identify
any group of faulty PLBs, then applies additional diagnostic
configurations to identify the faulty look-up table or flip-flop
within a faulty PLB. The ability to locate defective modules inside a
PLB enables a new form of fault-tolerance that reuses partially
defective PLBs in their fault-free modes of operation.