Introducing redundancy in field programmable gate arrays

TLDR

The paper proposes a redundancy scheme and circuitry for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The scheme modifies wiring resource segmentation, adds spare rows and selector circuits, but incurs area overhead and speed degradation. The study shows that one or two spare rows suffice, doubling gross yield early, and the scheme is applicable to many FPGA architectures.

Abstract

A redundancy scheme and circuitry for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are proposed. The scheme requires the modification of the wiring resource segmentation and the addition of spare rows and selector circuits. An improved yield gross product is quantitatively studied. The disadvantages caused by this architecture, such as an area overhead and speed degradation, are discussed. It is concluded that, in this redundancy scheme, the sufficient number of spare rows is one or two for practical cases and the gross yield product can be doubled at an early stage of production. The proposed scheme can be applicable to a wide range of FPGA architectures.