Rapid Diagnostic Fault Simulation of Stuck-at Faults in Sequential Circuits using Compact Lists

This paper describes a diagnostic fault simulator for stuck-at faults in sequential circuits that is both time and space efficient. The simulator represents indistinguishable classes of faults as memory efficient lists. The use of lists reduces the number of output response comparisons between faults and hence speeds up the simulation process. The lists also make it easy to drop faults when they are fully distinguished from other faults. Experimental results on the ISCAS89 circuits show that the simulator runs significantly faster than an earlier work based on distinguishability matrices and is faster and more memory efficient than a recent method based on lists of indistinguishable faults. The paper provides the first reports on pessimistic and optimistic diagnostic measures for all faults of the large ISCAS circuits.