The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 22, 1997
Filed:
May. 07, 1996
Tein-Yow Yu, Chandler, AZ (US);
VLSI Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and system for testing a digital counter of mn bits comprises dividing the counter into m segments, each of n bits. For test purposes, the counter then is further divided into first and second m segment groups. Multiplex gates are used between the segments and are controlled by sensing the condition of the most significant bits of the most significant one of the m segments for applying clock pulses to verify specific connections between various bits of the counter for the first four cycles of clock pulses applied during the test mode. After these four cycles, gating circuits coupled with the most significant bits of the most significant one of the m segments are used to automatically switch the remainder of the test connections to the second group to verify all of the remaining connections in the counter, with full testing of the counter being accomplished in 2.sup.n +2 cycles of clock pulses.