Reducing test application time and power dissipation for scan-based testing via multiple clock disabling

Abstract

Two problems that are becoming quite critical for scanbased testing are long test application time and high test power consumption. Previously many efficient methods have been developed to address these two problems separately. In this paper, we propose a novel method called the multiple clock disabling (MCD) technique to reduce test application time and test power dissipation simultaneously. Our method is made possible by cleverly employing a number of existing techniques to generate a special set of test patterns that is suitable for a scan architecture based on the MCD technique. Experimental results show that on average 81% and 85% reductions in test application time and power dissipation have been respectively obtained when comparing to the conventional scan method.