Testing i/o timing defects for high pin count, non-contact interfaces

Abstract

Indirect testing of multiple I/O interface signal lines concurrently. A system distributes a test data sequence to a group of signal lines. Each signal line receives the test data sequence and checks for errors in receiving the test data sequence at an associated I/O buffer. The system includes an error detection mechanism for each signal line. The system also includes an error detection mechanism for the group of multiple signal lines. If the I/O buffer receives any bit of the test data sequence incorrectly, the signal line error detection indicates an error. The group error detection accumulates pass/fail information for all signal lines in the group. Rather than sending a pass/fail indication on every cycle of the test, the group error detection can count pass/fail information for all signal lines of the group for all bits of the test data sequence and indicate error results after the entire test data is received.