User-constrained test architecture design for modular SOC testing

Abstract

This paper discusses the extensions to the automatic SOC test architecture optimization tool TR-ARCHITECT that allow the user to partially specify the resulting test architecture. We describe a novel Test Architecture Specification (TAS) language, in which the user can express constraints with respect to (1) the number of Test Access Mechanisms (TAMs), (2) the TAM widths, (3) the assignment of modules to TAMs, and (4) the module ordering within a TAM. We also describe the extensions and modifications to the algorithms of TR-ARCHITECT that were necessary to incorporate the ability to satisfy the user constraints. We present experimental results for several ITC'02 SOC Test Benchmarks.