FPGA-Based Test Bench for Nonvolatile Electronic Memories

A test bench based on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) has been developed to reduce the cost of testing nonvolatile memory circuits. Specifications for endurance testing of memories can require test times as long as weeks — often impractically long in the case of commercial memory testers, which are expensive. The present FPGA-based test bench not only costs less than commercial memory testers do but can also be configured with multiple FPGAs to enable the simultaneous testing of many more memory chips than can be tested simultaneously on a commercial memory tester.