On the use of multi-cycle tests for storage of two-cycle broadside tests

Multi-cycle scan-based tests are useful for test compaction since, in general, a test with more clock cycles between its scan operations can detect more faults. For delay faults, test compaction is achieved by applying several consecutive clock cycles under a fast clock. This complicates the fault simulation and test generation processes. This paper describes a new approach that stores multi-cycle tests, but applies to the circuit tests that are effectively two-cycle broadside tests. The storage of multi-cycle tests allows the number of stored tests, and the input test data volume, to be reduced. Alternatively, for the same number of stored tests, it allows additional two-cycle tests to be applied. The application of two-cycle broadside tests allows fault simulation and test generation procedures for broadside tests to be used.