Circuit module, semiconductor integrated circuit, and inspection apparatus and method thereof

A semiconductor integrated circuit, comprising:

• a plurality of circuit modules including shift registers constituting a scan chain;
• a control unit for controlling the operation of the shift register of each of the circuit modules;
• a control signal generation unit for generating a control signal for each of the circuit modules, whereby the control unit is permitted to enable the shift register;
• and
• a selection unit for selecting between a short-circuit path through which a scan signal for each of the circuit modules is loaded and an ordinary path through which the scan signal is loaded after being made to go through the shift register, wherein the selection unit selects the ordinary path when the operation of the shift register is permitted by the control signal generated by the control signal generation unit and selects the short-circuit path when the operation of the shift register is not permitted.

A system having an inspection apparatus for inspecting a semiconductor integrated circuit, comprising:

• a plurality of circuit modules including shift registers constituting a scan chain;
• a control signal generation unit for supplying, as a control signal, output data of a data-retaining element included in a shift register within the circuit module to a circuit module the output data of which is output later than that of the circuit module;
• and
• a selection unit for selecting between a short-circuit path through which a scan signal for each of the circuit modules is loaded and an ordinary path through which the scan signal is loaded after being made to go through the shift register, wherein the selection unit selects the ordinary path when the operation of the shift register is permitted by the control signal and selects the short-circuit path when the operation of the shift register is not permitted;
• the inspection apparatus including:
• an acquisition unit for acquiring a scan data string output from the semiconductor integrated circuit;
• a storage unit for storing output destination information including identification information of a data-retaining element included in a shift register within each of the circuit modules and the identification information of a circuit module which is the output destination of the data-retaining element, and output sequence information indicating the output sequence of the circuit module;
• a detection unit for detecting path selection information of a circuit module, whose path selection information indicating which path has been selected is unknown, from a target scan data string, according to output destination information stored by the storage unit;
• a specification unit for specifying circuit modules, among the plurality of circuit modules, in an order of output, according to the output sequence information stored by the storage unit;
• a determination unit for determining which path, between the ordinary path and the short-circuit path, path selection information detected with respect to the circuit modules specified by the specification unit indicates;
• a setting unit for setting as many scan data strings, among scan data strings acquired by the acquisition unit, as a number of data-retaining elements included in the shift register within the circuit module in the target scan data string, when a determination is made by the determination unit that the ordinary path is indicated;
• an association unit for associating the target scan data string with the identification information of the circuit module;
• and
• an output unit for outputting a result of association provided by the association unit.