A New Static Compaction of Deterministic Test Sets

Test set compaction is one of the key steps of the postproduction test known to bring down test pattern counts. This, in turn, allows one to reduce the corresponding test data volume, test application time, and hence the cost of testing. This article presents a method that strives to reduce the number of automatic test pattern generation (ATPG)-produced deterministic test patterns to deliver compact test sets. In principle, the new scheme works with a meaningful representation of test patterns by using external and internal necessary assignments (NAs) to determine small groups of potentially compatible faults. These faults are subsequently retargeted by the robust satisfiability (SAT)-based ATPG that produces a single test pattern for the entire group, thus making the resultant test set smaller in size. Experimental results obtained for 12 large industrial cores and stuck-at faults confirm superiority of the proposed scheme over the state-of-the-art test set compaction techniques and are reported herein.