An Efficient Test for a Transistion Signalling based Up-/Down-Counter

This paper reports on a formal model for testing transition signalling logic in presence of (multiple) stuck-at faults and how this model can be applied to an Up-/Down-Counter Module. The Counter forms a key element in the fault-tolerant distributed clock generation circuit developed in the course of our DARTS (Distributed Algorithms for Robust Tick Synchronization) project, but is sufficiently general to be of interest for other transition signalling circuits, too. We point out the particular problems of testing a self-timed logic module and devise a very efficient test with 100% coverage for our Counter Module.

[1]  Kewal K. Saluja,et al.  Testing micropipelined asynchronous circuits , 2004, 2004 International Conferce on Test.

[2]  Stephen B. Furber,et al.  Scan testing of micropipelines , 1995, Proceedings 13th IEEE VLSI Test Symposium.

[3]  Ran Ginosar,et al.  Implementing Sequential Machines as Self-Timed Circuits , 1992, IEEE Trans. Computers.

[4]  Seif Haridi,et al.  Distributed Algorithms , 1992, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[5]  Ivan E. Sutherland,et al.  Micropipelines , 1989, Commun. ACM.

[6]  Matthias Függer,et al.  Fault-Tolerant Distributed Clock Generation in VLSI Systems-on-Chip , 2006, 2006 Sixth European Dependable Computing Conference.

[7]  Rajit Manohar,et al.  Efficient failure detection in pipelined asynchronous circuits , 2005, 20th IEEE International Symposium on Defect and Fault Tolerance in VLSI Systems (DFT'05).

[8]  Stephen B. Furber,et al.  Built-in self-testing of micropipelines , 1997, Proceedings Third International Symposium on Advanced Research in Asynchronous Circuits and Systems.

[9]  Gaetano Borriello,et al.  Testing asynchronous circuits: A survey , 1995, Integr..

[10]  Jan M. Rabaey,et al.  Digital Integrated Circuits , 2003 .

[11]  Ran Ginosar,et al.  An Efficient Implementation of Boolean Functions as Self-Timed Circuits , 1992, IEEE Trans. Computers.

[12]  Luciano Lavagno,et al.  Testing redundant asynchronous circuits by variable phase splitting , 1994, EURO-DAC '94.

[13]  Daniel Marcos Chapiro,et al.  Globally-asynchronous locally-synchronous systems , 1985 .

[14]  Erik Brunvand,et al.  Testing micropipelines , 1994, Proceedings of 1994 IEEE Symposium on Advanced Research in Asynchronous Circuits and Systems.

[15]  Sam Toueg,et al.  Optimal clock synchronization , 1985, PODC '85.

[16]  Ran Ginosar,et al.  Self-timed is self-checking , 1995, J. Electron. Test..

[17]  Kaamran Raahemifar,et al.  Testing C-elements is not elementary , 1995, Proceedings Second Working Conference on Asynchronous Design Methodologies.

[18]  Jordi Cortadella,et al.  Automatic generation of synchronous test patterns for asynchronous circuits , 1997, DAC.

[19]  Josef Widder Distributed Computing in the Presence of Bounded Asynchrony , 2004 .

[20]  Jo C. Ebergen,et al.  A formal approach to designing delay-insensitive circuits , 1991, Distributed Computing.