Static Test Sequence Compaction Research Articles

Reverse-order-restoration-based static test compaction for synchronous sequential circuits

We present a new static test sequence compaction procedure called reverse-order-restoration (ROR) for synchronous sequential circuits. It improves the efficiency of the basic vector restoration-based compaction procedure by reversing the order of the vectors in the original test sequence. This reduces the number of faults to be resimulated after every restoration step. We extend the ROR procedure to a class of radix reverse order vector restoration procedures. These procedures dynamically increase the number of vectors to be restored in each step and, thus, speed up the vector restoration process. We also investigate techniques to improve the compaction levels achieved by the ROR-based compaction procedure. By combining reverse order vector restoration and vector omission, higher compaction levels are achieved. Experimental results on test sequences generated by several test generators show the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.

Test sequence compaction methods for acyclic sequential circuits using a time expansion model

AbstractTest sequences for acyclic sequential circuits can be generated by using a time expansion model. In this paper, static and dynamic test sequence compaction techniques are proposed in which the test sequence generated by the time expansion model has two characteristics: (1) The test sequence length is constant, and (2) The location of an undefined value (X) for all primary inputs can be determined independently of test generation faults. First, a static test sequence compaction method is proposed that uses a template which is independent of the value of the test sequence. Then a dynamic test sequence compaction method is presented using reverse transform fault simulation, performing fault simulation for the time expansion model of the test pattern in which the test sequence after compaction is reverse‐transformed. As a result of application of the proposed method to acyclic sequential circuits made by using partial scan design, the test sequence length was reduced by 19 to 34%. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 33(10): 105–115, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.1162

Procedures for static compaction of test sequences for synchronous sequential circuits

We propose three static compaction techniques for test sequences of synchronous sequential circuits. We apply the proposed techniques to test sequences generated for benchmark circuits by various test generation procedures. The results show that the test sequences generated by all the test generation procedures considered can be significantly compacted. The compacted sequences thus have shorter test application times and smaller memory requirements. As a by-product, the fault coverage is sometimes increased as well. Additionally, the ability to significantly reduce the length of the test sequences indicates that it may be possible to reduce test generation time if superfluous input vectors are not generated.

A Practical Vector Restoration Technique for Large Sequential Circuits

Given a test sequence and a list of faults detected by the sequence, vector restoration techniques extract a minimal subsequence that detects a chosen subset of modeled faults. Vector restoration techniques are useful in static compaction of test sequences and in fault diagnosis. We propose a new vector restoration technique that is a significant improvement over the state of the art in several ways: (1) a sequence of length n can be restored with only O(n log2n) simulations while known approaches require simulation of O(n2) vectors, (2) a two-step restoration process is used that makes vector restoration practical for large designs, and (3) restoration process for several faults is overlapped to provide significant acceleration in vector restoration. Our new ideas can be used to improve run-times of known static compaction and fault diagnosis methods. We integrated the proposed vector restoration technique into a static test sequence compaction system. Our experiments show that the new restoration technique, as compared to known techniques (Proceedings of Int. Conf. on Computer Design, University of Iowa, Aug. 1997, pp. 360–365.), is (1) about 2 times faster for the ISCAS benchmark circuits, and (2) 3 to 5 times faster on large, industrial designs. Using the new restoration technique, we successfully processed large industrial designs that could not be handled by earlier techniques (Proceedings of Int. Conf. on Computer Design, University of Iowa, Aug. 1997, pp. 360–365.) in 2 CPU days.

Test Set and Fault Partitioning Techniques for Static Test Sequence Compaction for Sequential Circuits

We propose a new static test set compaction method based on a careful examination of attributes of fault coverage curves. Our method is based on two key ideas: (1) fault-list and test-set partitioning, and (2) vector re-ordering. Typically, the first few vectors of a test set detect a large number of faults. The remaining vectors usually constitute a large fraction of the test set, but these vectors are included to detect relatively few hard faults. We show that significant compaction can still be achieved by partitioning faults into hard and easy faults, and compaction is performed only for the hard faults. This significantly reduces the computational cost for static test set compaction without affecting quality of compaction. The second key idea re-orders vectors in a test set by moving sequences that detect hard faults to the beginning of the test set. Fault simulation of the newly concatenated re-ordered test set results in the omission of several vectors so that the compact test set is smaller than the original test set. Experiments on several ISCAS 89 sequential benchmark circuits and large production circuits show that our compaction procedure yields significant test set reductions in low execution times.

Fast static compaction algorithms for sequential circuit test vectors

Two fast algorithms for static test sequence compaction are proposed for sequential circuits. The algorithms are based on the observation that test sequences traverse through a small set of states and some states are frequently revisited throughout the application of a test set. Subsequences that start and end on the same states may be removed if necessary and if sufficient conditions are met for them. Contrary to the previously proposed methods, where multitudes of fault simulations are required, the techniques described in this paper require only two fault simulation passes and are applied to test sequences generated by various test generators, resulting in significant compactions very quickly for circuits that have many revisited states.