Layout-dependent fault analysis and test synthesis for CMOS circuits

Due to the continuous shrinking of semiconductor technology, there are more and more subtle errors or faults widely distributed in manufactured chips, and traditional "single" stuck-at fault model may become inappropriate. It is definitely better if all combinations of multiple faults can be completely tested. In this paper, we present ATPG (Automatic Test Pattern Generation) techniques targeting all multiple stuck-at faults, i.e. all combinations of stuck-at faults. That is, given "n" possibly faulty locations in a circuit, the target set of faults consists of 3 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sup> - 1 fault combinations, as each possibly faulty location is under stuck-at 1, stuck-at 0, or normal/non-faulty. Traditional ATPG flows use fault simulators to eliminate all detectable faults by the current set of test vectors. The problem, however, fault simulators represent fault lists explicitly in the sense that all possible faults are enumerated in the fault lists. This prevents us from dealing with ultra large fault lists, such as 3 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sup> - 1 faults. We need "implicit" representation of faults in order to deal with such huge numbers of faults or fault combinations. We present SAT based formulations for ATPG of circuits having very large numbers of faults by implicitly eliminating detected faults. We solve a set of SAT problems whose constraints increase pure incrementally (here "pure" means never deleting constraints), and so the entire solving process can be very efficient, as all learnings obtained so far are valid in the following SAT problems. Experiments are performed on combinational parts of ISCAS89 circuits in their AIG (AND-Inverter Graph) representations. We have successfully generated the complete set of test vectors assuming that faults happen only at outputs of gates. Our ATPG techniques can also start with a given set of test vectors. If we start the ATPG processes with a set of test vectors for single stuck-at faults, we can obtain the set of additional test vectors required for multiple stuck-at faults. Results are a little bit surprising in the sense that we need very few additional test vectors for multiple faults, although the numbers of fault combinations are exponentially larger. As far as we know, for the first time, complete test vectors for all stuck-at faults for ISCAS89 circuits where faults happen only at outputs of gates in AIG representations of the circuits have been obtained.

The ever increasing size and complexity of today’s Very-Large-Scale-Integration (VLSI) designs requires a thorough investigation of new approaches for the generation of test patterns for both test and diagnosis of faults. SAT-based automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) is one of the most popular methods, where, in contrast to classical structural ATPG methods, first a mathematical representation of the problem in form of a Boolean formula is generated, which is then evaluated by a specialized solver. If the considered fault is testable, the solver will return a satisfying assignment, from which a test pattern can be extracted; otherwise no such assignment can exist. In order to speed up test pattern generation, the concept of D-chains was introduced by several researchers. Thereby supplementary clauses are added to the Boolean formula, reducing the search space and guiding the solver toward the solution. In the past, different variants of D-chains have been developed, such as the backward D-chain or the indirect D-chain. In this work we perform a thorough analysis and evaluation of the D-chain variants for test pattern generation and also analyze the impact of different D-chain encodings on diagnostic test pattern generation. Our experimental results show that depending on the incorporated D-chain the runtime can be reduced tremendously.

Parallel computing is widely utilized to speed up automatic test pattern generation (ATPG); however, most of today's parallel ATPGs are non-deterministic, which often leads to non-reproducible test pattern sets. This paper presents a fault-parallel test pattern generator: CPP-ATPG; it generates the same test pattern set regardless of the thread count and timing. Besides, it exhibits good speedup scalability as the thread count increases. These are achieved by the circular pipeline processing (CPP) principle, which guides the proposed parallel ATPG to preserve the task processing orders that are necessary to ensure ATPG determinism but with low inter-thread synchronization overhead. Furthermore, a multi-round test generation and compaction strategy is proposed to avoid possible test pattern inflation. Experimental results show that CPP-ATPG exhibits close-to-linear speedup for at least up to 12 threads.

Today, VLSI design has progressed to a stage where it needs to incorporate methods of testing circuits. The Automatic Test Pattern Generation (ATPG) is a very attractive method and feasible on almost any combinational and sequential circuit. Currently available automatic test pattern generators (ATPGs) generate test sets that may be excessively long. Because a cost of testing depends on the test length, compaction techniques have been used to reduce that length. The motivation for studying test compaction is twofold. Firstly, by reducing the test sequence length, the memory requirements during the test application and the test application time are reduced. Secondly, the extent of test compaction possible for deterministic test sequences indicates that test pattern generators spend a significant amount of time generating test vectors that are not necessary. The compacted test sequences provide a target for more efficient deterministic test generators. Two types of compaction techniques exist: dynamic and static. The dynamic test sequence compaction performs compaction concurrently with the test generation process and often requires modification of the test generator. The static test sequence compaction is done in a post-processing step to the test generation and is independent of the test generation algorithm and process. In the thesis, a new idea for static compaction of test sequences for synchronous sequential circuits has been proposed. Our new method - SUSEM (Set Up Sequence Elimination Method) uses the circuit state information to eliminate some setup sequences for the target faults and consequently reduce the test sequence length. The technique has been used for the test sequences generated by HITEC test generator. ISCAS89 benchmark circuits were used in our experiments, for some circuits which have a large number of target faults and relatively small number of flip-flops, the very significant compactions have been obtained. The more important is that this method can be used to improve the test generation procedure unlike most static compaction methods which blindly or randomly remove parts of test vectors and cannot be used to improve the test generators.

This paper presents an efficient automatic test pattern generation technique for loop-free circuits. A partial scan technique is used to convert a sequential circuit (finite state machine) with arbitrary feedback paths into a pipelined circuit for testing. Test generation for these modified circuits can be performed with a modified combinational automatic test pattern generator (ATPG), which is much faster than a sequential ATPG. A combinational model is obtained by replacing all flipflops by buffers. It is shown that a test vector for a fault in this model obtained by a combinational test generator can be expanded into a sequence of identical vectors to detect the same fault in the original sequential circuit. This technique may abort a few faults which can then be resolved with a sequential ATPG. Experiments on the ISCAS89 circuits show that only 30% to 70% of flipflops require scanning in larger circuits and 96% to 100% fault coverage for almost all the circuits without resorting to a sequential ATPG.

This work proposes automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) for Null Convention Logic (NCL). NCL is a robust asynchronous paradigm that introduces new challenges to test and testability algorithms due to the lack of a clock signal and the presence of a large number of state holding elements. The main features of this work are clockless, self-timed ATPG for all single stuck-at faults in NCL circuits, including those of gate internal feedback (GIF). The detection of faults on GIF is performed with no added test hardware. To the extent of our knowledge, this is the first work which has addressed clockless, self-timed ATPG with coverage for faults on GIF of NCL gates and with no area overhead. The proposed test generation algorithms are evaluated for several real-size NCL circuits with average 96.2% fault coverage.

DFT (Design for Testability) is a methodology of testing for manufacturing defects in a chip. DFT consists of scan, ATPG (Automatic test pattern generation) methodologies and the BIST (Built in self-test) methods. This paper explores ATPG for pattern generation and LBIST (Logic built-in self-test) for testing. LBIST is explored and tested using pseudorandom test pattern generation. The fault list created for undetected faults are dumped into ATPG and fault specific test patterns are generated. These patterns detect the random pattern resistant faults (which are undetected by pseudorandom testing patterns). Further, a smart compression algorithm is defined to compress the pattern which can be stored inside the chip for LBIST testing, with no added memory overhead, and the minimum extra hardware (which only comprises of combinational logic). The proposed algorithm has been reviewed and analyzed and it has been found that the fault coverage achieved is 86.01%.

The statistical delay of a path is traditionally modeled as a Gaussian random variable assuming that the path is always sensitized by a test pattern. Its sensitization in various circuit instances varies among its test patterns and the pattern induced delay is non-Gaussian. It is modeled using probability mass functions (PMFs). This article presents an automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) method, where multiple uncorrelated test patterns per path improve its defect coverage (DC). The impact of the ATPG process is evaluated by comparing to traditional methods. It is also shown that the presented ATPG is useful in selecting critical paths.

Necessary, nonconflicting, and arbitrary assignments can be distinguished during algorithmic test pattern generation. The identification of necessary and nonconflicting assignments is algorithmic in the sense that there is no element of choice or luck in the computation, no reliance on heuristics, and no possibility of these assignments causing a backtrack if the fault is testable. This paper presents algorithms based on the mathematical properties of images and inverse images of set functions to define reduction and tendency lists in combinational logic circuits, used to identify necessary and nonconflicting assignments, respectively. Issues relating to the efficient implementation of these algorithms are addressed from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Experimental results obtained on a variety of benchmark circuits show that algorithmic assignment identification can be used to reduce or eliminate backtracking in automatic test pattern generation. >

In this paper, a new approach for generating test vectors that detects faults in combinational circuits is introduced. The approach is based on automatically designing a circuit which implements the D-algorithm, an automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) algorithm, specialized for the combinational circuit. Our approach exploits fine-grain parallelism by performing the following in three clock cycles: direct backward/forward implications, conflict checking, selecting next gate to propagate fault or to justify a line, decisions on gate inputs, loading the state of the circuit after backup. In this paper, we show the feasibility of this approach in terms of speed, and how it compares with software based techniques.

Comet — A new method for the deterministic test pattern generation in c-circuits

Digital circuit’s complexity and density are increasing while, at the same time, more quality and reliability are required. These trends, together with high test costs, make the validation of VLSI circuits more and more difficult. In this project we introduce the automatic test pattern generator with multiple single input change (SIC) vectors for post silicon validation schemes. Choosing a best device leads to challenges in various factors, In this paper performs a novel test pattern generator (TPG) for built-in self-test. Our method generates multiple single input change (MSIC) vectors in a pattern, i.e., each vector applied to a scan chain is an SIC vector. A reconfigurable Johnson counter and a scalable SIC counter are developed to generate a class of minimum transition sequences. The designed TPG is flexible to both the test-per-clock and the test-per-scan schemes.A theory is also developed to represent and analyze the sequences and to extract a class of MSIC sequences. Analysis results show that the produced MSIC sequences have the favorable features of uniform distribution and low input transition density. The performances of the designed TPGs and the circuits under test with 45 nm are evaluated. Simulation results with ISCAS benchmarks demonstrate that MSIC can save test power and impose no more than 7.5% overhead for a scan design. It also achieves the target fault coverage without increasing the test length.

As CMOS has emerged as an important technology for VLSI, testing of large CMOS networks has become a crucial issue. This paper considers single physical failures in a CMOS gate and shows their effect in terms of logic faults. The existence of such a correspondence is verified by simulation results, and a transistor-level fault model is given. To make the test process simpler, a comprehensive fault model of CMOS circuits wherein CMOS stuck-open (s-op) faults are transformed into the classical gate-level TTL stuck-at (s-a) faults has been obtained. This transformation makes the testing of CMOS combinational circuits equivalent to the testing of transformed TTL sequential circuits and eliminates any need for special consideration of s-op faults. The superiority of this gate-level model over other models is its ability to be integrated into the cell libraries of existing automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) packages. This model is also useful for multiple faults when either s-a or s-op faults, or both, are present. Several examples are included to illustrate the versatility and usefulness of this gate-level fault model.

This paper presents an automated mixed-level test pattern generator operating on register-transfer level and gate-level representations of digital systems.The system implements a novel test generation approach based on a uniform diagnostic model of a digital system for mixed- level representations in the form of alternative graphs (AGs).The model allows for defining a general fault model which uniformly covers high-level functional and low-level stuck-at fault models.The AG representation enables the application of standardized procedures for fault activation, fault propagation and line justification on both levels.The system consists of separate test generators for datapath and control parts, based on similar fault propagating procedures, which differ only in building general test plans.Experimental results show the efficiency of the approach used in the generator.Key words: automatic test pattern generation

The authors present an approach to improve sequential circuit automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) by using E-cells that capture knowledge of circuit functionality without physically modifying the circuit. The approach addresses the problem of test generation for circuits which are inherently testable but outstrip the ATPG algorithm's capacity to generate sufficient fault coverage in reasonable time. Using E-cells the ATPG algorithm processes a less complex virtual circuit. Experimental results on complex industrial designs demonstrate fault coverage improved by 258% and CPU time was reduced by an order of magnitude. >