A Dynamic Programming Approach to the Test Point Insertion Problem

Abstract

The test point insertion problem is that of selecting t nodes in a combinational network as candidates for inserting observable test points, so as to minimize the number of test vectors needed to detect all single stuck-at faults in the network. In this paper we describe a dynamic programming approach to selecting the test points and provide an algorithm that inserts the test points optimally for fanout-free networks. We further extend this algorithm to general combinational networks with reconvergent fanout. We also analyze the time complexity of the algorithm and show that it runs in O(n-t) time, where n is the size of the network and t is the number of test points to be inserted. As a side result we show that we can compute minimal test sets for a restricted class of networks that includes fanout. This extends previous results which were limited to fanout-free networks.