A Capture Safe Static Test Compaction Method Based on Don't Cares

Abstract

In recent years, the number of test vectors has increased due to VLSI circuit density and complexity. A test compaction technique can reduce the number of test vectors without losing fault coverage. However, the number of transitioned signal lines per one test vector increases since each compacted test vector detects more faults. Therefore, excessive capture power consumption at scan testing causes the excessive IR drop and it might induce unnecessary yield loss. In this paper, we propose a static test compaction method which guarantees that generated test vectors are capture-safe.