Selection of flip-flops for partial scan paths by use of a statistical testability measure

Partial scan paths improve the testability of digital circuits, and incur minimal costs in the area overhead and test application time. Design constraints may require that a partial scan path include only those flip-flops that provide the greatest improvements in circuit testability. STAFFS, a tool that identifies such flip-flops, has been developed. It uses a statistical testability measure to acquire quantitative data for the controllabilities and observabilities of the nodes of a circuit. It predicts the changes that would occur in the data due to the scanning of specific flip-flops, and uses those predictions to select flip-flops. STAFFS weights the observability data versus the controllability data when selecting flip-flops, and it can efficiently select alternative scan designs for different weights. Experimental results for thirteen sequential benchmark circuits reveal that STAFFS consistently selects scan designs with fault coverages that are significantly higher than those of arbitrarily selected scan designs.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Electrical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1992

Author dc:creator

• Jett, David B.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Ha, Dong Sam
• Tront, Joseph G.
• Midkiff, Scott F.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-12302008-063234

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/46437