On ATPG for multiple aggressor crosstalk faults in presence of gate delays

Abstract

Crosstalk faults have emerged as a significant mechanism for circuit failure. Long signal nets are of particular concern because they tend to have a higher coupling capacitance to overall capacitance ratio. A typical long net also has multiple aggressors. In generating patterns to create maximal crosstalk noise on a net, it may not be possible to activate all aggressors logically or simultaneously. Therefore, pattern generation must focus on activating a maximal subset of aggressors switching around the same time the victim net switches. This is a well-known problem. In this paper, we present a novel solution assuming a unit delay model for the gates, combining 0-1 integer linear program (ILP) with traditional stuck-at fault ATPG. The maximal aggressor activation is formulated as a linear programming problem while the fault effect propagation is treated as an ATPG problem and the gate delays are subsumed by a circuit transformation. The proposed technique was applied to ISCAS 85 benchmark circuits. Results indicate that percentage of total capacitance that can be switched varies from 30-80%.