On System-on-Chip Testing Using Hybrid Test Vector Compression

This paper presents a comprehensive hybrid test vector compression method for very large scale integration (VLSI) circuit testing, targeting specifically embedded cores-based system-on-chips (SoCs). In the proposed approach, a software program is loaded into the on-chip processor memory along with the compressed test data sets. To minimize on-chip storage besides testing time, the test data volume is first reduced by compaction in a hybrid manner before downloading into the processor. The method uses a set of adaptive coding techniques for realizing lossless compression. The compaction program need not to be loaded into the embedded processor, as only the decompression of test data is required for the automatic test equipment (ATE). The developed scheme necessitates minimal hardware overhead, while the on-chip embedded processor can be reused for normal operation on completion of testing. This paper reports results on studies of the problem and demonstrates the feasibility of the suggested methodology with simulation runs on the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) 85 combinational and ISCAS 89 full-scan sequential benchmark circuits.