Mentor’s Tessent Safety Ecosystem Helps Ambarella’s AI Vision Processors Achieve Automotive Safety Goals

AI vision chip company successfully brings up and achieves ISO26262 safety goals using Tessent test technology

Mentor, a Siemens business, today announced that its Tessent™ software safety ecosystem has helped artificial intelligence (AI) vision chip company Ambarella meet in-system testing requirements and achieve ISO26262 Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) targets for its CV22FS and CV2FS automotive camera system-on-chips (SoCs).

“Design for testability (DFT) is a critical element of integrated circuit (IC) design, especially for cutting-edge AI devices targeting safety-critical automotive applications,” said Praveen Jaini, director of VLSI at Ambarella. “Mentor’s Tessent Safety ecosystem provides us with powerful, time-saving capabilities that help us quickly achieve our design goals while delivering the cost-effectiveness and reliability our customers expect. Mentor’s Tessent ecosystem is highly scalable and provides optimal flexibility for developing alternative designs and next-generation devices.”

The Tessent Safety ecosystem includes a range of industry-leading Mentor IC test technologies, a complete portfolio of advanced automotive IC test solutions, and tight connections with Mentor's industry-leading partners. The ecosystem offers a range of advanced IC test technologies, including in-circuit device monitoring, an innovative approach that distributes embedded monitors throughout each semiconductor device, interconnecting them through a common infrastructure to enable rapid detection and reporting of random faults anywhere in the system.

“The promise of autonomous driving presents tremendous opportunities for the semiconductor industry, while also presenting a number of new technical challenges,” said Brady Benware, vice president and general manager of the Tessent product line at Mentor, a Siemens business. “The Tessent Safety ecosystem helps our customers address and overcome these challenges through a scalable DFT architecture that is specifically designed to address the time, cost and quality requirements associated with autonomous vehicle IC design.”

Ambarella’s CV22FS and CV2FS SoCs are designed with the following Tessent Safety ecosystem technologies:

• Tessent™ LogicBIST software, the industry-leading built-in self-test solution for testing the digital logic components of integrated circuits. The software includes unique features for nanometer SoC designs that reduce test costs and shorten time to market while maximizing test quality.

  
  

• The Tessent™ MemoryBIST platform features a comprehensive automated flow that provides design rule checking, test planning, integration, and verification at the RTL or gate level.

  
  

• Tessent™ MissionMode products combine automation capabilities with on-chip IP to test and diagnose semiconductor chips throughout the vehicle’s electronic systems at any time during normal vehicle operation.

Mentor Graphics Corporation is a Siemens business with world-leading electronic hardware and software design solutions, dedicated to providing products, consulting services and quality support to the world's most successful electronics, semiconductor and system companies. The company is headquartered in Oregon.