Hierarchical DFT methodology and automotive functional safety have been two recent areas of focus for Mentor, a Siemens business. Legacy design-for-test flows impose inefficiencies when transitioning to a hierarchical methodology, according to Geir Eide, product marketing director, Tessent Design-for-Test, at Mentor. What’s required for fast time to market, he said in a recent phone interview, is optimal end-to-end automation for hierarchical implementation. And with respect to automotive functional safety, the required tools and technologies extend beyond DFT to embrace a safety ecosystem that included third-party tools, added Eide’s colleague Lee Harrison, automotive IC test solutions manager at Mentor.
To address both automation for hierarchical implementation and automotive functional safety, Mentor in November introduced two new solutions. First, the Tessent Connect DFT automation methodology delivers intent-driven hierarchical test implementation that helps IC design teams achieve manufacturing test quality goals faster and with fewer resources compared with traditional DFT methods. Second, Mentor also introduced the Tessent Safety ecosystem, which leverages the automotive IP portfolio of Arm as part of a Functional Safety Partnership Program.