High-Level Observability for Effective High-Level ATPG

This paper focuses on observability, one of the open issues in High-Level test generation. Three different approximate metrics for taking observability into account during RT-level ATPG are presented. Metrics range from a really naïve and optimistic one to more sophisticated analysis. Metrics are evaluated including them into the calculation of the fitness function used in a RT-level ATPG. Advantages and disadvantages are illustrated. Experimental results show how sharp observability metrics are crucial for making effective RT-level ATPG possible: test sequences generated at RT-level outperform commercial gate-level ATPGs on some ITC99 benchmark circuits.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: VTS
• Authors: Fulvio Corno, Matteo Sonza Reorda, Giovanni Squillero
• Keywords: Effective Rt-level Atpg, Hardware, RT-level ATPG, Sharp Observability Metrics, VTS 2000