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:
Apr. 27, 2004
Filed:
Feb. 09, 2001
Miron Abramovici, Berkeley Heights, NJ (US);
Xiaoming Yu, Champaign, IL (US);
Agere Systems Inc., Allentown, PA (US);
Abstract
Test pattern generation is performed for a sequential circuit by first separating the circuit into overlapping pipelines by controlling corresponding clocks for one or more registers of the circuit so as to break feedback loops of the circuit, and then processing each of the pipelines separately in order to determine if particular target faults are detectable in the pipelines. Independent clocks may be provided for each of a number of registers of the circuit in order to facilitate the breaking of the feedback loops. The processing of the pipelines may include a first processing operation which detects target faults in a single time frame, and a second processing operation which detects target faults in two or more time frames. The first processing operation generates as many combinational test vectors as possible for each of the pipelines, while the second processing operation generates sequences of two or more combinational test vectors for each of the pipelines. Advantageously, the invention allows efficient combinational test pattern generation techniques to be applied to a sequential circuit.