Defect Tolerance Based on Coding and Series Replication in Transistor-Logic Demultiplexer Circuits

We present a family of defect tolerant transistor-logic demultiplexer circuits that can defend against both stuck-ON (short defect) and stuck-OFF (open defect) transistors. Short defects are handled by having two or more transistors in series in the circuit, controlled by the same signal. Open defects are handled by having two or more parallel branches in the circuit, controlled by the same signals, or more efficiently, by using a transistor-replication method based on coding theory. These circuits are evaluated, in comparison with an unprotected demultiplexer circuit, by: 1) modeling each circuit's ability to tolerate defects and 2) calculating the cost of the defect tolerance as each circuit's redundancy factor R, which is the relative number of transistors required by the circuit. The defect-tolerance model takes the form of a function giving the failure probability of the entire demultiplexer circuit as a function of the defect probabilities of its component transistors, for both defect types. With the advent of defect tolerance as a new design goal for the circuit designer, this new form of performance analysis has become necessary.