An evolutionary strategy to design an on-chip test pattern generator without prohibited pattern set (PPS)

This paper reports the design of an on-chip Test Pattern Generator (TPG) for VLSI circuits that avoids generation of a given Prohibited Pattern Set (PPS). The design ensures desired pseudo-random quality of the test patterns generated while ensuring fault coverage close to the figures achieved with a typical Pseudo Random Pattern Generator (PRPG) designed around maximal length LFSR/CA. The theoretical framework of CA has provided the foundation of this work. A GA based evolution scheme is employed to achieve the desired TPG developed over the theory of cellular automata.