Sentinel Network

Ridgetop’s flagship product, Sentinel NetworkTM, is a network health management (NHM) application designed to reduce support and maintenance costs. The foundation of Sentinel Network is predicated upon an extensible software platform that distributes the sensor data collection, data fusion, reasoning, and presentation tasks. The Sentinel Network platform also comprises prognostic tools that combine network discovery tools as well as a troubleshooting environment to create test sequencing algorithms for complex network systems. This innovative approach captures network architecture, interfaces, tests, procedures, and then links these failures to other built-in-tests, troubleshooting steps, and repair procedures. To learn more about Sentinel Network or to join the beta community, click here

• Product Brief
• • Sentinel Network Product Brief

Sentinel Sensors (System Level)

• Package
• • SJ Monitor
  • SJ BIST

• Module
• • RingDown

• System
• • Sentinel PI

Sentinel Silicon

Sentinel Silicon are precision die-level "canaries" that will predict impending failure of ICs before the host circuit. Co-located with the host IC, Sentinel Silicon structures "see" the same environment as the chip, but are scaled to indicate failure conditions before the host device fails. The following aging degradation effects are shown below:

• Chip
• • Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB)
  • This prognostic cell provides accurate measurement of age-related damage caused by TDDB effects.
  • Hot Carrier Injection (HCI)
  • Ridgetop provides a proven method to measure the amount of damage resulting from Hot Carrier effects.
  • Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI)
  • Ridgetop provides a proven method to measure the amount of damage resulting from Hot Carrier effects.
  • RadCell Fox
  • Under irradiation, the prognostic cell will indicate the amount of degradation from Field Oxide Leakage, causing leakage of the transistors.
  • RadCell V_T
  • In ICs, the transistors are intended to be identical and used in matched pairs. With radiation exposure, the threshold voltage, VT , will begin to shift and can cause timing errors in digital circuits. This prognostic cell is precisely calibrated to reveal the extent of degradation, and trigger before worsening conditions cause further problems.

Ridgetop’s signature detection methods extract information from the following levels:

• Fault Occurence
• Extraction Method

• Die Level
• Sentinel Silicon Library with in-situ test structures (Canaries)

• Package / Interconnect Level Intermittency Detection
• Sentinel SJ BIST™ for Ball Grid Array (BGA) packages using non-intrusive firmware methods for FPGAs. Sentinel SJ Monitor™ for external interconnect monitoring with a separate IC

• Board Level
• Sentinel PDCT for detection of intermittencies in board level installations using software-based autocorrelation method. Sentinel PHMPro™ to “mine” existing measurands and operands for prognostic signatures.

• Module Level
• Sentinel RingDown™ for non-intrusive power system monitoring. Sentinel RingDown EMA for non-intrusive prognostics for electro-mechanical actuators.

• System Level
• Sentinel Network™ for IT Network Prognostics. Sentinel PHMPro™ for Net Centric Prognostics that can support wider Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring (IVHM) applications

nanoDFM™ | Process Aware Design

For many years, Ridgetop has pioneered the design of in-situ test structures for critical measurements of IC parameters. This expertise has been leveraged with the introduction of Ridgetop’s Design-for-Manufacturing (DFM) family of products.

Proven at leading telecommunication and aerospace firms, the family provides rigorous and accurate measurements that can be used for foundry verification and yield improvement applications.

• PDKChek™ with YieldMaxx™
• Ridgetop’s PDKChek measures die-level process-induced variations, both random and systematic, in MOS transistor threshold voltage (VT), resistance, capacitance, and turn on/off current. PDKChek is an unobtrusive, stand-alone IP block designed to accurately and precisely measure the variation in parameters resulting from the randomness inherent in die manufacturing and processing.
• YieldMaxx provides critical mismatch measurements for assessment of variations, and closed loop, on-chip correction to maintain high production yields in the presence of manufacturing process drifts.

• Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB)
• This prognostic cell provides accurate measurement of age-related damage caused by TDDB effects.

• Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI)
• Ridgetop has designed and verified the intermittent effects caused by NBTI in small geometry (sub 130nm) ICs.

InstaCell IP Core Library

The cores provided by Ridgetop are "Silicon Proven" and have documented reports available. Ridgetop has designed cores for use in the IBM, TSMC, and AMI processes.

• Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) Cores
• Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) Cores

Radiation Hardened and Trusted Facility Design Services

• Rad-Hard Capabilities Overview

Ridgetop designs effective radiation-hardening tools, test structure libraries and mixed-signal IP cores for demanding applications. Ridgetop also provides independent engineering assessments of radiation vulnerability of critical systems in space satellites, and foundry capabilities.

• Department of Defense Trusted Supplier for IC Design Services

The U.S. Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA), a branch of the Department of Defense (DoD), has granted Ridgetop Group, Inc. full accreditation as a Trusted Integrated Circuit (IC) Supplier for Design Services.

MEMS Technology

• MEMS Accelerometer

Ridgetop Group has leveraged its work on several related DOD and NASA contract awards to develop a first silicon prototype of an integrated MEMS capacitive accelerometer on a CMOS die. The innovative low temperature MEMS deposition post-processing step lowers the cost of development as no changes to the CMOS process flow are required.