Methodology and platform for fault co-emulation

A platform and a technique to improve stuck-at fault grading efficiency through the use of hardware co-emulation is presented. IC manufacturers are always seeking for new ways to test their devices in order to deliver parts with zero defects to their customers. Scan is a well known technique that attains high fault coverage results with efficiency. Demands for new features motivate the creation of high complex systems with a mixture of analog and digital blocks with a communication interface that is difficult to cover with scan patterns. In addition, the logic that configures the chip for each of the different test modes, some BIST memory interfaces, asynchronous clock dividers or generators, among others, are examples of circuits that are blocked or have few observation/control points during scan. A FPGA based-platform that uses heterogeneous models to emulate digital, analog and memory blocks for fault grading patterns on complex systems is described. Also introduced in our proposal are four types of models that can be used with FPGAs, and the results of applying our fault co-emulation technique to some benchmark circuits including ISCAS89, ADC, iopads and memory controllers.