Theorems for efficient identification of indistinguishable fault pairs in synchronous sequential circuits

Abstract

We introduce theorems that enable efficient identification of indistinguishable fault pairs in synchronous sequential circuits using an iterative logic array of limited length. These theorems can be used for identifying fault pairs that can be dropped from consideration before diagnostic ATPG starts, thus improving the efficiency of diagnostic ATPG. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed theorems, which allow us to identify almost all the indistinguishable fault pairs in finite-state machine benchmarks.