The effectiveness of the scan test and its new variants

Many industrial experiments have shown that the very simple and time-efficient Scan test detects many unique faults. This paper shines a new light on the properties of Scan test; such properties will be evaluated using industrial data. In addition, it will be shown that many faults in a memory, which are not in the cell array, are detectable using the appropriate read-write sequences. The traditional version of Scan test performs 'some' of such read-write sequences, but lacks the capability of performing all of them for both the 'up' and the 'down' address orders and the '0' and the '1' data values. Therefore a new set of scan based tests are proposed to fill that vacuum.

[1]  Ad J. van de Goor,et al.  Tests for resistive and capacitive defects in address decoders , 2001, Proceedings 10th Asian Test Symposium.

[2]  Jacob A. Abraham,et al.  Efficient Algorithms for Testing Semiconductor Random-Access Memories , 1978, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[3]  Georgi Gaydadjiev,et al.  March LA: a test for linked memory faults , 1997, Proceedings European Design and Test Conference. ED & TC 97.

[4]  Said Hamdioui,et al.  Detecting faults in the peripheral circuits and an evaluation of SRAM tests , 2004, 2004 International Conferce on Test.

[5]  Benoit Nadeau-Dostie,et al.  Serial interfacing for embedded-memory testing , 1990, IEEE Design & Test of Computers.

[6]  Magdy S. Abadir,et al.  Functional Testing of Semiconductor Random Access Memories , 1983, CSUR.

[7]  Said Hamdioui Testing Static Random Access Memories: Defects, Fault Models and Test Patterns , 2004 .

[8]  Said Hamdioui,et al.  March SS: a test for all static simple RAM faults , 2002, Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE International Workshop on Memory Technology, Design and Testing (MTDT2002).

[9]  A. J. van de Goor,et al.  Testing Semiconductor Memories: Theory and Practice , 1998 .

[10]  Said Hamdioui,et al.  March SL: a test for all static linked memory faults , 2003, 2003 Test Symposium.

[11]  Ad J. van de Goor,et al.  Using March Tests to Test SRAMs , 1993, IEEE Des. Test Comput..

[12]  Said Hamdioui,et al.  Testing static and dynamic faults in random access memories , 2002, Proceedings 20th IEEE VLSI Test Symposium (VTS 2002).

[13]  Marian Marinescu,et al.  Simple and Efficient Algorithms for Functional RAM Testing , 1982, ITC.

[14]  Georgi Gaydadjiev,et al.  March U: a test for unlinked memory faults , 1997 .

[15]  Ad J. van de Goor,et al.  Industrial evaluation of DRAM SIMM tests , 2000, Proceedings International Test Conference 2000 (IEEE Cat. No.00CH37159).

[16]  Sudhakar M. Reddy,et al.  A March Test for Functional Faults in Semiconductor Random Access Memories , 1981, IEEE Transactions on Computers.