A fault simulation method: Parallel pattern critical path tracing

Abstract

We present a fast fault simulation algorithm for combinational circuits which combines parallel pattern evaluation and critical path tracing. When the number of faults is large, our algorithm exploits the full advantages of critical path tracing. As fault dropping progresses, the overhead for critical path tracing surpasses its advantages. On the other hand, the efficiency of Parallel Pattern Single Fault Propagation (PPSFP) increases rapidly since relatively few undetected faults remain, and they tend to be inactive. To avoid the overhead of critical path tracing and achieve the advantages of PPSFP, dynamic update of node classes is used to produce a smooth transition from critical path tracing to PPSFP. By using this approach, we get high performance for both small and large numbers of test patterns. Also, preprocessing related to structure analysis is avoided while achieving almost all of its advantages.