An approach for quantifying path correlation in digital circuits without any path or segment enumeration

Stelios Neophytou, Kyriakos Christou, Maria K. Michael

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The correlation between the physical paths of a digital circuit has important implications in various design automation problems, such as timing analysis, test generation and diagnosis. When considering the complexity and tight timing constraints of modern circuits, this correlation affects both the design process and the testing approaches followed in manufacturing. In this work we quantify the diversity of a set of paths (or path segments), let these be critical I/O paths, error propagation paths for various fault models, or paths traced for diagnostic purposes. Circuit paths are encoded using Zero-Suppressed Binary Decision Diagrams (ZBDDs); the proposed method consists of a sequence of standard ZBDD operations to provide a measure of the overlap of the paths under consideration. The main contribution of the presented method is that, path or path segment enumeration is entirely avoided and, hence, a large number of paths can be considered in practical time. Experimentation using standard benchmark circuits demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach in showing the difference in path correlation between various critical I/O path sets.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 16th IEEE European Test Symposium, ETS 2011
Pages141-146
Number of pages6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011
Event16th IEEE European Test Symposium, ETS 2011 - Trondheim, Norway
Duration: 23 May 201127 May 2011

Other

Other16th IEEE European Test Symposium, ETS 2011
Country/TerritoryNorway
CityTrondheim
Period23/05/1127/05/11

Keywords

  • Digital circuits
  • Path similarity
  • Zero-supressed binary decision diagrams

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