Testing and characterization of ASICs by the user

The use of simulation data obtained during user development of an application-specific IC (ASIC) to generate a test program is discussed. It is shown that the quality of the test program generated in this way depends on the accuracy of the simulation and the thoroughness of the applied stimuli. The simulation needs to take account of both the tester and the device specifications. The tester imposes certain restraints such as minimum pulse width and restrictions on the relative placing of edges. If the simulator is not truly dynamic, there can be problems with the resulting test program in two key areas. The setup and hold times of the inputs may not be correctly verified, and position of the output may be wrongly predicted. A tester-per-pin architecture has several advantages over a shared-resource tester. These advantages mean saving or shortening of certain steps in the conversion process, easy characterization, and faster response for changes