Selection of Global Minimal Test Points Set for Integer-Coded Fault Wise Table

Test points selection for integer-coded fault wise table is a discrete optimization problem. On one hand, traditional exhaustive search method is computationally expensive. On the other hand, the space complexity of traditional exhaustive is low. A tradeoff method between the high time complexity and low space complexity is proposed in this paper. At first, a new fault-pair table is constructed based on the integer-coded fault wise table. The Fault-Pair table consists of two columns: one column represents fault pair and the other represents test points set that can distinguish the corresponding faults. Then, the rows are arranged in ascending order according to the cardinality of corresponding test points set. Thirdly, test points in the top rows are selected one by one until all fault pair are isolated. During the test points selection process, the rows that contain selected test points are deleted and then the dimension of fault-pair table decrease gradually. The proposed test points selection algorithm is illustrated and tested using an integer-coded fault wise table that derived from a real analog circuit. We show computational results, which suggest that the proposed policies are better than exhaustive strategy.