This three-year project will develop capabilities for testing of digital, memory, analog, and radio frequency devices, with possible future upgrades to MEMS, optical and nanotechnology devices. The infrastructure developed under this project consists of a test laboratory and its value-added applications. The new VLSI test laboratory will have modern automatic test equipment (ATE) of open architecture. The laboratory will be located at Auburn University in Alabama and will be used through networked access by three other institutions of that state, namely, University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama at Huntsville, and Tuskegee University, for advancing education, training and research applications. In the future, the test lab infrastructure will allow collaborative use by universities outside Alabama as well, making it a national resource. The applications will include new university courses with hands-on experiments on testing of digital, analog and radio frequency chips, FPGAs and system-on-a-chip devices; industry-oriented training classes including test lab exercises; and research on silicon debug methods aimed at improving the yield and reliability. Research with industry focus and practice-oriented short courses are expected to make this infrastructure fully supported through industry funds beyond the three-year infrastructure building period.
