On the Comparison of Different ATPG Approaches for Approximate Integrated Circuits

Approximate Computing (AxC) emerges more and more as a new paradigm for the design of energy-efficient Integrated Circuits (ICs) at the cost of accuracy reduction. The latter has to be modeled and quantified by means of Error Metrics. From the testing point of view, AxC Integrated Circuits offer an opportunity. Instead of testing for all manufacturing defects, the goal is to test only for those that will lead to an error considered as not acceptable by the adopted Error Metrics. The main advantages are the test cost reduction, since the number of required test vectors will be reduced, and the yield improvement. We developed three approaches for generating test vectors targeting AxC Integrated Circuits. This paper aims at comparing these approaches on a public benchmark suite.