Title :
Fitting ATE channels with scan chains: a comparison between a test data compression technique and serial loading of scan chains
Author :
Dalmasso, Julien ; Flottes, Marie-Lise ; Rouzeyre, Bruno
Author_Institution :
Lab. d´´Informatique, de Robotique et de Microelectronique de Montpellier, France
Abstract :
Since systems-on-chip (SoCs) keep on being more and more complex, test data compression has become essential to reduce test costs. In particular, a common technique for reducing test time is to use multiple scan chains. Nevertheless, this possibility is limited by the number of available ATE (automatic test equipment) channels. In this context, horizontal compression allows to fit the number of available ATE channels with the number of scan chains. But to achieve compression, these methods rely on the presence of don´t care bits (X´s) in the test sequences. Therefore, the length of these sequences is significantly greater than ones with fully specified bits. Conversely, serialization based methods allow to use fully specified test sequences, that are significantly smaller. This paper first presents a new method for horizontal test data compression and secondly proposes an answer to the question: is there really a benefit in terms of test application time (TAT) and test data volume of using compression instead of a simple serialization of test data?.
Keywords :
automatic test equipment; boundary scan testing; data compression; integrated circuit testing; system-on-chip; SoC; automatic test equipment channels; scan chains serial loading; systems-on-chip; test application time; test data compression; test data serialization; test data volume; Automatic test pattern generation; Circuit testing; Costs; Decoding; Feeds; Performance evaluation; Robots; Switches; System testing; Test data compression;
Conference_Titel :
Electronic Design, Test and Applications, 2006. DELTA 2006. Third IEEE International Workshop on
Print_ISBN :
0-7695-2500-8
DOI :
10.1109/DELTA.2006.49