Patents by Inventor Shikhar Makkar

Shikhar Makkar has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240320409
    Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for scan testing a system-on-chip (SoC) integrated circuit having first and second partitions coupled together across one or more inter-partition circuits, each of which includes a decompressor; a compactor; an INTEST scan chain and an EXTEST scan chain coupled in parallel between the decompressor circuit and compactor circuit; and digital test control access hardware connected between the decompressor circuit and each INTEST scan chain and configured to selectively disable each INTEST scan chain while each EXTEST scan chain continues to operate in response to a partition EXTEST mode signal having a first predetermined value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 17, 2023
    Publication date: September 26, 2024
    Inventors: Shikhar Makkar, Chandan Gupta
  • Publication number: 20240319270
    Abstract: A system for performing scan testing on a device core uses a test access port (TAP). The TAP includes a test clock (TCK) pin, a test data in (TDI) pin, and a test mode select (TMS) pin, along with a test control register (TCR) associated with it. The TCR is used to set a scan mode signal, which configures the scan flip flops within the device core for scan testing and performs the scan testing on the device core. The TCR can also be reset to exit the scan testing, with the reset being triggered by a reset circuit receiving the deassertion of both a scan enable (SE) signal and a scan input (SI) signal during the capture-phase of scan testing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 21, 2024
    Publication date: September 26, 2024
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics International N.V.
    Inventor: Shikhar MAKKAR
  • Publication number: 20240295602
    Abstract: An integrated circuit (IC), including a clocking system, a plurality of clock gate controllers, and a plurality of clock gates, is provided. During a capture phase of an at-speed testing of the IC, the clocking system generates an at-speed clock signal including launch and capture pulses that are extracted from a reference clock signal based on a capture phase frequency. The plurality of clock gate controllers generates a plurality of enable signals such that for the launch pulse, one enable signal is asserted, and for the capture pulse, the same or different enable signal is asserted. Each of the plurality of clock gates is activated based on an assertion of a corresponding enable signal. Further, during the capture phase, one or more activated clock gates enable the at-speed testing of the IC based on the at-speed clock signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 24, 2023
    Publication date: September 5, 2024
    Inventors: Chandan Gupta, Shikhar Makkar, Saumya Pandey
  • Publication number: 20230213580
    Abstract: The signal toggling detection and correction circuit includes a flip-flop, a checker circuit, and a fault monitoring circuit that includes a restoration circuit. Based on faults such as soft errors and unintended bit toggles in the flip-flop, a flop output signal toggles. A set of checker signals outputted by the checker circuit may toggle based on toggling of the flop output signal and a restoration signal of the restoration circuit. Based on the toggling of at least one checker signal, the fault monitoring circuit determines whether the flip-flop or the checker circuit is faulty. When the checker circuit is faulty, the fault monitoring circuit corrects the toggling of at least one checker signal. When the flip-flop is faulty, the fault monitoring circuit corrects the toggling of one of the toggled flop output signal or the restoration signal and further corrects the toggled checker signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2022
    Publication date: July 6, 2023
    Inventors: Shikhar Makkar, Nikila Krishnamoorthy
  • Patent number: 11686769
    Abstract: The signal toggling detection and correction circuit includes a flip-flop, a checker circuit, and a fault monitoring circuit that includes a restoration circuit. Based on faults such as soft errors and unintended bit toggles in the flip-flop, a flop output signal toggles. A set of checker signals outputted by the checker circuit may toggle based on toggling of the flop output signal and a restoration signal of the restoration circuit. Based on the toggling of at least one checker signal, the fault monitoring circuit determines whether the flip-flop or the checker circuit is faulty. When the checker circuit is faulty, the fault monitoring circuit corrects the toggling of at least one checker signal. When the flip-flop is faulty, the fault monitoring circuit corrects the toggling of one of the toggled flop output signal or the restoration signal and further corrects the toggled checker signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Shikhar Makkar, Nikila Krishnamoorthy
  • Patent number: 11422187
    Abstract: A scan flip-flop includes a selection circuit, a primary latch, a secondary latch, and a data retention latch. The selection circuit selects and outputs one of functional data, first reference data, scan data, and first control data as second reference data. The primary latch receives the second reference data and outputs third reference data, whereas the secondary latch receives the third reference data and outputs second control data. The second control data is then provided to a subsequent scan flip-flop of a scan chain. The data retention latch receives one of the third reference data and the second control data, and outputs and provides the first reference data to the selection circuit. The first reference data corresponds to functional data retained in the scan flip-flop during a structural testing mode associated with the scan chain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventor: Shikhar Makkar
  • Patent number: 10948538
    Abstract: An integrated circuit (IC) has scan chains of stitched registers that support scan testing of functional logic. The scan testing has a shift phase in which incoming and outgoing data are shifted into and out of the registers using a slow clock and a capture phase in which outgoing data from the functional logic is captured by the registers using launch-and-capture pulses of a fast clock to check for delay faults. During a warm-up period after termination of the slow clock but before application of the launch-and-capture pulses, the registers propagate data through their master latches without affecting the data stored in their slave latches. A warm-up controller configures the registers and generates control signals to perform either launch-on-shift or launch-on-capture scan testing. The flow of data and the warm-up controller operations keep the power supply rail voltage sufficiently charged for the fast launch-and-capture pulses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: NXP USA, INC.
    Inventors: Shikhar Makkar, Dimple Aggarwal, Nitin Anand, Manmohan Rana
  • Publication number: 20200386808
    Abstract: An integrated circuit (IC) has scan chains of stitched registers that support scan testing of functional logic. The scan testing has a shift phase in which incoming and outgoing data are shifted into and out of the registers using a slow clock and a capture phase in which outgoing data from the functional logic is captured by the registers using launch-and-capture pulses of a fast clock to check for delay faults. During a warm-up period after termination of the slow clock but before application of the launch-and-capture pulses, the registers propagate data through their master latches without affecting the data stored in their slave latches. A warm-up controller configures the registers and generates control signals to perform either launch-on-shift or launch-on-capture scan testing. The flow of data and the warm-up controller operations keep the power supply rail voltage sufficiently charged for the fast launch-and-capture pulses.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 9, 2019
    Publication date: December 10, 2020
    Inventors: Shikhar Makkar, Dimple Aggarwal, Nitin Anand, Manmohan Rana