A minimal hardware overhead BIST data compaction scheme

Existing data compaction schemes for built-in self-test (BIST) usually impose substantial hardware overhead. A minimal hardware overhead data compaction scheme is proposed that can achieve reasonably small aliasing with a hardware requirement as low as a one-stage linear feedback shift register (LFSR). Multiple signatures are checked, and all reference-signatures are made identical resulting in simple circuitry for checking the signatures. The proposed scheme is based on a simple manipulation of the fault-free output sequences from the circuit under test