Signature Analysis for Test Responses of Sequential Circuits

Abstract

Many test schemes use signature analyzers to compact the responses of a circuit under test. Unfortunately, there can be some faulty circuits with erroneous test responses but exactly the same signature as in the fault-free case. Hence, methods are required to determine how many faults become undetectable due to aliasing. Whereas previous work concentrated on combinational circuits, this paper investigates signature analysis for a wide range of sequential circuits, where the errors in successive responses are correlated. It is shown that for almost all faults of these circuits the probability of aliasing in a signature analyzer with k bits asymptotically approaches 2−k or is 0 if a signature analyzer with an irreducible characteristic polynomial is used and certain test lengths are avoided. The limiting value can be used as a good approximation for practical test lengths. These results are particularly useful for advanced built-in self-test techniques with low hardware overhead.