Power-aware test: Challenges and solutions

Power-aware test is increasingly becoming a major manufacturing test consideration due to the problems of increased power dissipation in various test modes as well as test implications that arise due to the usage of various low-power design technologies in devices today. Several challenges emerge for test engineers and test tool developers, including (and not restricted to) understanding of various concerns associated with power-aware test, development of power-aware design-for-test (DFT), automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) techniques, and test power analysis flows, evaluation of their efficacy and ensuring easy/rapid deployment. This paper highlights concerns and challenges in power-aware test, surveys various practices drawn from both academia and industry, and points out critical gaps that need to be addressed in the future.