Advanced automatic test pattern generation and redundancy identification techniques

Based on the sophisticated strategies used in the automatic test pattern generation system SOCRATES, the authors present several concepts aiming at a further improvement and acceleration of the deterministic test pattern generation and redundancy identification process. In particular, they describe an improved implication procedure and an improved unique sensitization procedure. Both procedures significantly advance the deterministic test pattern generation and redundancy identification especially for those faults, for which it is difficult to generate a test pattern or to prove them to be redundant, respectively. As a result of the application of the proposed techniques, SOCRATES is capable of successfully generating a test pattern for all testable faults in a set of combinational benchmark circuits, and of identifying all redundant faults with less than 10 backtrackings.<>