Diagnosis-Assisted Adaptive Test

This paper describes a method for improving the test quality of digital circuits on a per-design basis by: 1) monitoring the defect behaviors that occur through volume diagnosis; and 2) changing the test patterns to match the identified behaviors. To characterize the behavior of a defect (i.e., the conditions when a defect is activated), physically-aware diagnosis is employed to extract the set of signal lines relevant to defect activation. Then, based on the set of signal lines derived, the defect is attributed to one of several behavior categories. Our defect level model uses the behavior-attribution results of the current failing population to guide test-set customization to minimize defect level for a given constraint on test costs, or alternatively, ensure that defect level does not exceed some predetermined threshold. Circuit-level simulation involving various types of defects shows that defect level can be reduced by 30% using this method. Simulation experiment on actual chips also demonstrates quality improvement.