Test-data compression using hybrid prefix encoding for testing embedded cores

The degree of achievable test-data compression depends on not only the compression scheme but also the distribution of the applied test data. Therefore, it is possible to improve the compression ratio of a given test set by regenerating test set and using suitable compression scheme without harm the fault coverage. This paper proposes a novel encoding scheme, named hybrid prefix code. In the proposed scheme, two formats prefix are used to encode. Without losing fault coverage, this paper also proposes an approach to regenerate test set based on a given test set for the proposed encoding scheme. Experimental results show that the proposed compression solution could reduce test data volume effectively with a simple decoding architecture.