Artur Jutman

At-speed on-chip diagnosis of board-level interconnect faults

This article describes a novel approach to fault diagnosis suitable for at-speed testing of board-level interconnect faults.This approach is based on a new parallel test pattern generator and a specifically fault detecting sequence. The test sequence has tree major advantages.At first, it detects both static and dynamic faults upon interconnects. Secondly, it allows precise on-chp at-speed fault diagnosis of interconnect faults.Third, the hardware implementation of both the test generator and the response analyzer is very efficient in terms of silicon area.

Parallel X-fault simulation with critical path tracing technique

In this paper, a new very fast fault simulation method to handle the X-fault model is proposed. The method is based on a two-phase procedure. In the first phase, a parallel exact critical path fault tracing is used to determine all the detected stuck-at faults in the circuit, and in the second phase a postprocess is launched which will determine the detectability of X-faults.

FPGA-based synthetic instrumentation for board test

This paper studies a new approach for board-level test based on synthesizable embedded instruments implemented on FPGA. This very recent methodology utilizes programmable logic devices (FPGA) that are usually available on modern PCBs to a large extent. The purpose of an embedded instrument is to carry out a vast portion of test application related procedures, perform measurement and configuration of system components thus minimizing the usage of external test equipment. By replacing traditional test and measurement equipment with embedded synthetic instruments it is possible not only to achieve the significant reduction of test costs but also facilitate high-speed and at-speed testing. We detail the motivation and classify the FPGA-based instrumentation into different categories based on the implementation and application domains. Experimental results show the efficiency of this approach.

Effective Scalable IEEE 1687 Instrumentation Network for Fault Management

The infrastructure of IJTAG can be utilized during operation to detect errors and make appropriate fault handling. This article describes an architecture where error latency and automation are important requirements.

Fast extended test access via JTAG and FPGAs

This paper describes a new test access protocol for system-level testing of printed circuit boards for manufacturing defects. We show that the protocol can be based on standard Boundary Scan (BS) instructions and test access mechanism (TAM). It means that the methodology does not require any changes/redesign of hardware and can be immediately implemented in the electronic manufacturing. Our solution needs however a proper software support and availability of programmable devices (FPGAs, CPLDs, etc.) on the board under test. The new technique dramatically extends the applicability of BS testing in the reality of modern complex on-board data transfer buses and protocols. Potentially, it can also increase the speed of in-system programming of flash memories and other tasks that are traditionally performed using BS.

Parallel fault backtracing for calculation of fault coverage

A new improved method for calculation of fault coverage with parallel fault backtracing in combinational circuits is proposed. The method is based on structurally synthesized BDDs (SSBDD) which represent gate-level circuits at higher, macro level where macros represent subnetworks of gates. A topological analysis is carried out to generate an efficient optimized model for backtracing of faults to minimize the repeated calculations because of the reconvergent fanouts. The algorithm is equivalent to exact critical path tracing, however, processing the backtrace in parallel for a group of test patterns. Because of the parallelism, higher abstraction level modeling, and optimization of the topological model, the speed of fault simulation was considerably increased. Compared to the state-of-the-art commercial fault simulators the gain in speed was several times.

Asynchronous Fault Detection in IEEE P1687 Instrument Network

The paper describes asynchronous fault detection in silicon chips with network of embedded instruments based on IEEE P1687 IJTAG. This technique allows faster fault detection and localization by using asynchronous signal propagation from instruments to instrumentation network controller. The additional hardware is described, scenarios of operation including multiple simultaneous fault detection and localization are analysed.

Off-Line Testing of Delay Faults in NoC Interconnects

Testing of high density SoCs operating at high clock speeds is an important but difficult problem. Many faults, like delay faults, in such sub-micron chips may only appear when the chip works at normal operating speed. In this paper, we propose a methodology for at-speed testing of delay faults in links connecting two distinct clock domains in a SoC. We give an analytical analysis about the efficiency of this method. We also propose a simple digital hardware structure for the receiver end of the link under test to detect delay faults. It is possible to extend our method to combine it with functional testing of the link and adapt it for online testing

LFSR Polynomial and Seed Selection Using Genetic Algorithm

In this paper the authors present a framework aimed at optimization of important properties of pseudo-random test pattern generators used in embedded testing of modern complex digital devices like systems-on-chip. The method we propose is based on an evolutionary technique often referred as the genetic algorithm. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed method

Structural fault collapsing by superposition of BDDs for test generation in digital circuits

The paper presents a new structural fault-independent fault collapsing method based on the topology analysis of the circuit, which has linear complexity. The minimal necessary set of faults as the target objective for test generation is found. The main idea is to produce fault collapsing concurrently with the construction of structurally synthesized binary decision diagrams (SSBDD) used for test generation, as a side effect. To improve the fault collapsing, a new class of BDDs in a form of SSBDDs with multiple inputs (SSMIBDD) is proposed, which allows a significant reduction of the model complexity for test generation purposes, and produces collapsed fault sets with less sizes than the SSBDDs provide. Experimental data show that the fault collapsing by the proposed method is considerably more efficient than other structural fault collapsing methods with comparative time cost. The method is especially efficient for circuits with high rate of internal fanouts.