Gutting chip-testing costs: Designing VLSI circuits for testability is the most efficient way to reduce the relative costs of assuring high chip reliability

Most engineers would agree that the quality of an integrated circuit depends partly on the ability to test it. But many chips now hold over 10 000 devices, and the cost of testing tends to increase in proportion to the square of the number of devices on the chip. The problem of containing testing costs while ensuring chip quality is one that all semiconductor manufacturers face.