Testing cross-talk induced delay faults in static CMOS circuit through dynamic timing analysis

In deep submicron (DSM) circuits the critical path obtained from static timing analysis may often be incorrect due to the significant effect of crosstalk. In this paper we present a new algorithm based on timed automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) to generate a list of critical paths of a circuit and the corresponding input vectors to sensitize these paths under cross-talk. The algorithm based on modified PODEM handles multiple aggressors to a victim node and properly activates the aggressors to obtain maximum coupling to the victim. Several circuits were tested using this algorithm and results were verified by HSPICE simulation.