Deterministic Circular Self Test Path

Abstract

Circular self test path (CSTP) is an attractive technique for testing digital integrated circuits(IC) in the nanometer era, because it can easily provide at-speed test with small test data volume and short test application time. However, CSTP cannot reliably attain high fault coverage because of difficulty of testing random-pattern-resistant faults. This paper presents a deterministic CSTP (DCSTP) structure that consists of a DCSTP chain and jumping logic, to attain high fault coverage with low area overhead. Experimental results on ISCAs'89 benchmarks show that 100% fault coverage can be obtained with low area overhead and CPU time, especially for large circuits.