Online test method of FPGA solder joint resistance with low power consumption

• Published in: Microelectronics and reliability Vol. 55; no. 9-10; pp. 1867 - 1871
• Main Authors: Wang, Nantian, Li, Yue, Yu, Zongyue, Ren, Zhiqian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2015
• Subjects: Built-in self-test; Fault detection; Field programmable gate array; Reliability; Solder joint; Solder joint; Built-in self-test; Field programmable gate array; Fault detection; Reliability
• ISSN: 0026-2714; 1872-941X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.microrel.2015.06.009

Solder joint resistance monitoring is important for electronic system prognostics and system health management. It is noted that the typical built-in self-test method of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) solder joint based on charging and discharging of single capacitance has two main shortcomings of large power consumption and unavailability of the monitored pins in FPGA's functional design. In order to overcome these drawbacks, we propose an online measure method of FPGA solder joint resistance with the constraints of limited pin number and low power consumption in this paper. The model of our method is presented in detail, including external test circuit, internal test IP core and parameter determination. The validity of our proposal with low power consumption is upheld by theoretical studies. Furthermore, the corresponding platform of the novel method is built based on a Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA, and the relative experiments are conducted. Meanwhile, the experiment results show that the method can be used to online measure the resistance of the solder joint of FPGA with lower power consumption than the typical built-in self-test method. •We propose an online measure method of FPGA solder joint resistance.•The tested pins of the novel method are valid for the functional design.•Our method can be used to detect the resistance change with low power consumption.•The validity is explicitly proved by theoretical studies and experimental analyses.