A Built-in Self-test and Diagnosis Strategy for Chemically Assembled Electronic Nanotechnology

Chemically assembled electronic nanotechnology (CAEN) is under intense investigation as a possible alternative or complement to CMOS-based computing. CAEN is a form of molecular electronics that uses directed selfassembly and self-alignment to construct electronic circuits from nanometer-scale devices that exploit quantummechanical effects. Although expected to have densities greater than 10 gate-equivalents/cm, CAEN-based systems may possibly exhibit defect densities of up to 10%. The highly defective CAEN circuits will therefore require a completely new approach to manufacturing computational devices. In order to achieve any level of significant yield, it will no longer be possible to discard a device once a defect is found. Instead, a method of using defective chips must be devised. A testing strategy is developed for chemically assembled electronic nanotechnology (CAEN) that takes advantage of reconfigurability to achieve 100% fault coverage and nearly 100% diagnostic accuracy. This strategy is particularly suited for regular architectures with high defect densities.