Partial detectability profiles

Partial detectability profiles are introduced for estimating the fault coverage of random pattern input vectors. Partial profiles are justified mathematically, and the relationship between sample size and error introduced is quantified. The results of circuit simulations are presented, illustrating the accuracy of estimates based on partial detectability profiles. The reason for use of partial profiles instead of full profiles is that they do not require fault simulation over all possible input vectors. Similarly, the advantage partial profiling has over simulating a few random faults for all input vectors is that the number of possible input vectors often becomes prohibitive before the number of faults in very large circuits. Another interesting application is to use partial profiles to determine which faults have the lowest detectabilities.<>