Diagnostic fault equivalence identification using redundancy information and structural analysis

A significant problem with current diagnostic test generation techniques is the time spent in identifying diagnostic equivalences amongst fault pairs. Fault pair distance analysis is introduced in this paper to characterize diagnostically equivalent fault pairs and motivate local circuit transformations and structural analysis to identify equivalences in combinational circuits rapidly. Our results establish a connection between redundant faults and a specific class of diagnostically equivalent fault pairs. Structural analysis is then used to identify equivalences between fault pairs. Experimental results are presented on benchmark circuits to demonstrate the efficiency of the techniques.