A theory of testability with application to fault coverage analysis

When test vectors are applied to a circuit, the fault coverage depends on the characteristics of vectors, as well as on the circuit. The authors show that the average fault coverage can be computed from circuit testability and derive a relationship between fault coverage and circuit testability. The mathematical formulation allows computation of coverage for deterministic and random vectors. Applications of this analysis include determination of circuit testability from fault simulation, coverage prediction from testability analysis, prediction of test length, and test generation by fault sampling