Test standards (with focus on IEEE1149.1)

Testing systems using a standard test bus is presently the best method to guarantee the necessary test compatibility between IC manufacturers. A first action to promote a test bus started in 1985 in Europe with the Joint Test Action Group, JTAG. A test bus called IEEE1149.1 is now widely supported by most semiconductor companies, system test companies and a growing number of system designers. The success of this action and the increasing need in testing mixed-signal and state-of-the-art systems has accelerated the process development of new standard test buses. Therefore, since boundary-scan is a Design-for-Test (DFT) technique, IC designers are responsible of test implementation on chips