An effective BIST architecture for fast multiplier cores

Wallace free summation in conjunction with Booth encoding are well known techniques to design fast multiplier cores widely used as embedded cores in the design of complex systems on chip. Testing of such multiplier cores deeply embedded in complex ICs requires the utilization of a BIST architecture that can be easily synthesized along with the multiplier by the module generator. In this paper we introduce an effective BIST architecture for fast multipliers that completely complies with this requirement. The algorithmic BIST patterns that this architecture generates guarantee a fault coverage higher than 99%. The required test pattern generator consists of a simple fixed-size binary counter, independent of the multiplier size. Accumulator-based compaction is adopted since multipliers and adders co-exist in most datapath architectures.