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:
Sep. 02, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 21, 1999
Rohit Kapur, Cupertino, CA (US);
Denis Martin, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Thomas W. Williams, Boulder, CO (US);
Abstract
According to the present invention, during scan conversion, non-scan memory cells of a circuit design are replaced with scan cells to form a scan chain. The scan chain is transformed by the test synthesis tool of the present invention into dynamic scan chains with the addition of reconfiguration circuitry. The reconfiguration circuitry partitions the scan chain into multiple segments and enables each segment to be selectively “bypassed” (or deactivated) during test application. Shorter test patterns that are only pertinent to one or more segments are necessary, resulting in a reduction in overall test data volume and test application time. The present invention also provides a modified ATPG technique for generating test patterns for the dynamic scan chains.