IFIS: an online test methodology

The need to simplify and reduce the costs of testing in highly-complex digital integrated circuits is well established. IFIS (if it fails, it stops) is a novel online testing methodology using dual-rail data encoding. By using two-rails per datum and constraining transitions between consecutive data values, logic-affecting faults in digital electronic systems are detected by halting of the primary inputs and outputs of the circuit. The paper presents the design of a complex integrated circuit realised through a novel online test methodology. The circuit and its exact conventional equivalent have been realised in FPGA technology. As such it represents one of the more complex designs realised to date using online test approaches,