A static test compaction technique for combinational circuits based on independent fault clustering

Abstract

Testing system-on-chip involves applying huge amounts of test data, which is stored in the tester memory and then transferred to the circuit under test during test application.Therefore, practical techniques, such as test compression and compaction, are required to reduce the amount of test data in order to reduce both the total testing time and the memory requirements for the tester. In this paper, a new static compaction algorithm for combinational circuits is presented. The algorithm is referred to as independent fault clustering. It is based on a new concept called test vector decomposition. Experimental results for benchmark circuits demonstrate the effectiveness of the new static compaction algorithm.

Efficient test compaction for combinational circuits based on Fault detection count-directed clustering

“…We have used test sets generated by HITEC [19], which achieve full coverage of all detectable faults in the circuits. HITEC test sets are used for comparison with the work in [1,2,12]. In addition, we have used the fault simulator HOPE [20] for fault simulation purposes and the test relaxation algorithm in [12] for test vector component generation.…”

“…In Independent Fault Clustering (IFC) [1,2], Independent Fault Sets (IFSs) with respect to a given test set are first derived. Two faults are independent if they are not detected by the same test vector.…”

“…Recently, two static compaction techniques based on test vector decomposition and clustering have been proposed in [1][2][3]. The first technique, called Independent Fault Clustering (IFC) [1,2], is based on clustering test vectors according to independent fault sets.…”

“…In the second category, compaction is performed by modifying test vectors. This is achieved by merging of compatible test vectors based on test relaxation or raising [12,[13][14][15], essential fault pruning [9,[15][16][17], or test vector decomposition and clustering [1][2][3]. Finally, the third category of static compaction algorithms consists of compaction algorithms that add new test vectors to a given test set in order to remove some of the already existing test vectors [10,18].…”

“…The first technique, called Independent Fault Clustering (IFC) [1,2], is based on clustering test vectors according to independent fault sets. The second technique, called Class-based Clustering (CBC) [1,3], is based on classifying test vectors into classes and then eliminating test vectors by moving their components to other test vectors.…”