The construction of optimal deterministic partitionings in scan-based BIST fault diagnosis: mathematical foundations and cost-effective implementations

Partitioning techniques enable identification of fault-embedding scan cells in scan-based BIST. We introduce deterministic partitioning techniques capable of resolving the location of the fault-embedding scan cells. We outline a complete mathematical analysis that identifies the class of deterministic partitioning structures and complement this rigorous mathematical analysis with an exposition of the appropriate cost-effective implementation techniques. We validate the superiority of the deterministic techniques both in an average-case sense by conducting simulation experiments and in a worst-case sense through a thorough mathematical analysis.