Test Automation of Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) Validation using Hardware Software Approach

Date

2018-11-15

Authors

Panchal, Akash

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Abstract

The Inter-Integrated Circuit(I2C) is a serial communication protocol used to enable communication between two or more devices. Modern-day semiconductor devices require thorough validation prior to its release, which captures the development and execution of the test plan. With the ever-increasing complexity of semiconductor devices, validation efforts can be more time consuming and costly. Manual execution of hardware test cases which requires a lot of effort raises questions on its reliability. To save time and efforts along with ensuring reliability, test automation can be an effective solution that fulfills the necessity of hardware validation in a short span of time. The primary objective of the project is to develop a test automation by using Python scripting to confirm the operation of Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) protocol between the I2C controller of SpartanĀ®-6 FPGA and M24C08 EEPROM. The need of validating I2C controller of a control device manually is eliminated by the proposed test automation. Such test automation can be proven extremely useful in the case of several PCBs requiring I2C protocol validation in a short span of time ensuring high reliability. SpartanĀ®-6 evaluation board SP605 is used to execute the test cases as a hardware platform. Proposed test automation aims to reduce validation efforts required for a semiconductor device by offering advantages such as reusability and high reliability.

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Keywords

Validation, Inter-Integrated Circuit(I2C)

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