Diagnostic simulation of stuck-at faults in combinational circuits

Abstract

Two faults are said to be equivalent, with respect to a test set T, iff they cannot be distinguished by any test in T. The sizes of the corresponding equivalence classes of faults are used as a basis for comparing the diagnostic capability of two given test sets. A novel algorithm, called "multiway list splitting", for computing the Equivalence Classes of stuck-at faults, in combinational (full scan) circuits, with respect to a given test set is presented. Experimental results presented show the algorithm to be more efficient than previously known algorithms based on decision diagrams and diagnosibility matrix.