Design and synthesis of a generic board-level test controller

The paper describes an approach to hierarchical self tests by use of a test controller. As design for testability and built-in self tests (BIST) at the board level are becoming increasingly important, research has been carried out on formulating test controllers to control test activities. In our approach, instead of providing a fixed test controller design, an automatic synthesis tool is developed to generate test controllers based on the specific properties of a board and its test requirements. In this way the test controller is more efficient and a better performance/cost ratio can be achieved.