A fast testing method for sequential circuits at the state transition level

In this paper an efficient method called the fast augmented state transition (FAST) test method is proposed to alleviate the testing problem of sequential circuits at the state transition level. By adding some extra logic gates to a sequential circuit under test the FAST method guarantees that each state of the augmented circuit has both the shortest distinguishing and synchronizing sequences, hence the testing complexity can be greatly reduced. The test length of the FAST method is shorter than any other exhaustive testing approaches based on the state transition level. Furthermore the test set for the augmented circuit can be easily identified.

[1]  F. C. Hennine Fault detecting experiments for sequential circuits , 1964, SWCT 1964.

[2]  Kewal K. Saluja,et al.  An Alternative to Scan Design Methods for Sequential Machines , 1986, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[3]  Kwang-Ting Cheng,et al.  A single-state-transition fault model for sequential machines , 1990, 1990 IEEE International Conference on Computer-Aided Design. Digest of Technical Papers.

[4]  Kwang-Ting Cheng Recent advances in sequential test generation , 1992, Digest of Papers. 1992 IEEE VLSI Test Symposium.

[5]  Melvin A. Breuer,et al.  Digital systems testing and testable design , 1990 .

[6]  David Bryan,et al.  Combinational profiles of sequential benchmark circuits , 1989, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems,.

[7]  Kwang-Ting Cheng,et al.  Functional test generation for finite state machines , 1990, Proceedings. International Test Conference 1990.

[8]  Edward P. Hsieh,et al.  Checking Experiments ror Sequential Machines , 1971, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[9]  Irith Pomeranz,et al.  On achieving a complete fault coverage for sequential machines using the transition fault model , 1991, 28th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference.

[10]  Syed Zahoor Hassan An Efficient Self-Test Structure for Sequential Machines , 1986, ITC.

[11]  Thomas W. Williams,et al.  A logic design structure for LSI testability , 1977, DAC '77.