Practice and theory (IC testing)

The author addresses the question of knowledge transfer between industry and academy in the area of integrated-circuit (IC) testing. He first examines the movement of theory from academia to industrial practice, finding two problems: designers are evaluated on meeting deadlines not on testability; and most designers do not know how to ensure testability in a systematic fashion. The solutions are technological-implementation of either design rules and design-rule checkers to guarantee testability or the use of testability measure programs-and educational, i.e. teaching design for testability as an integral part of logic design. The author then discusses the problems of teaching the relevance of theory to current industrial practice at the University ball. He finds more problems and lists the causes of the irrelevance of theory, including industry-university consulting policies, funding mechanisms that depend on peer review, and the frequent difficulty of determining the relevance of novel theory before its industrial applications.<
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