A method for diagnosing a defect is provided. A first candidate pair comprises a first defect candidate and a second defect candidate. A first pattern is generated to distinguish one or more faults of the first defect candidate from one or more faults of the second defect candidate. The first defect candidate is removed responsive to determining that the first pattern does not detect the first defect candidate and determining that an automatic test equipment (ATE) failure log associates the first pattern with failure. Removing the first candidate pair, as well as additional candidate pairs when possible, promotes diagnosis efficiency by reducing a number of computations required.

Embodiments include methods, and computer system, and computer program products for performing system functional test on a chip having partial-good portions. Aspects include: initializing, by system functional test software, a service engine of the chip, performing, by service engine, system functional test, and completing system functional test of chip. The chip may include service engine, a service engine memory and one or more “partial-good” portions. The initializing may include: loading system functional test software into the service engine memory, identifying each “partial-good” portion of the chip, writing a “partial-good” parameter for each “partial-good” portion of the chip identified to service engine memory, and triggering execution of system functional test. Method may include: decoding system functional test software, retrieving “partial-good” parameters, initializing “partial-good” portions of chip, and performing system functional test on “partial-good” portions of chip. The chip may include is a processor chip that has one or more “partial-good” cores.

Methods and systems for performing fault injection testing on an integrated circuit hardware design. The methods include: (a) receiving a raw fault node list identifying one or more fault nodes of the hardware design; (b) receiving information indicating a grouping of the fault nodes in the raw fault node list into a plurality of fault node groups, each fault node group comprising fault nodes that have a same effect on a failure mode of the hardware design; (c) generating a final fault node list based on the fault node groups; (d) selecting a set of fault injection parameters from the final fault node list, the set of fault injection parameters identifying at least one fault node in the final fault node list to fault; (e) performing a fault injection test on the hardware design by causing a fault to be injected into a simulation of the hardware design based on the selected set of fault injection parameters; (f) determining a result of the fault injection test; (g) storing the result of the fault injection test; and repeating (d) to (g) at least once.

In some embodiments, a system and/or method may test logic blocks for an integrated circuit. To alleviate problems associated with current methods of integrated circuit testing, a system may include a power switch control signal on a different voltage rail. In some embodiments, a Test VDD may be used to isolate the power switches from the rest of the logic cells in an integrated circuit. During testing, each logic block may be powered individually using the Test VDD to control the power switches to the logic blocks. When a logic block short is identified, the nonviable logic block may be isolated to such that the nonviable logic block is not used during the future and only viable logic blocks are used in the integrated circuit. This allows for use of logic within an integrated circuit that might otherwise have been discarded or destroyed because of one or more shorts.

A failure diagnostic apparatus includes a path calculation unit which calculates, for each input pattern to a diagnosis target cell, a path affecting an output value of the diagnosis target cell when a failure is assumed as an activation path, a path classification unit which classifies the activation path associated with the input pattern for which the diagnosis target cell has passed a test and the activation path associated with the input pattern for which the diagnosis target cell has failed the test, a path narrowing unit which calculates a first failure candidate path, a second failure candidate path and a normal path of the diagnosis target cell based on classified activation paths, and a result output unit which outputs information on the first failure candidate path, the second failure candidate path and the normal path.

A method for testing semiconductor devices is disclosed, which includes: obtaining a result measured on a semiconductor device in one of a set of tests; comparing the result with a maximum value determined among respective results that were previously measured in one or more of the set of tests and a minimum value determined among respective results that were previously measured in one or more of the set of tests; determining, based on the comparison between the first result and the maximum and minimum values, whether to update the maximum and minimum values to calculate a delta value; comparing the delta value with a noise threshold value; determining based on the comparison between the delta value and the noise threshold value, whether to update a value of a timer; determining that the value of the timer satisfies a timer threshold; and determining that the semiconductor device incurs noise.

A safety circuit for the multi-channel processing of an input signal. The safety circuit includes an analog-to-digital conversion device having a first analog input and a second analog input and at least one digital output for processing the input signal. Furthermore, the safety circuit has a test device which is set up to apply a test signal at the first and/or second input of the A/D conversion device in such a way that the test signal superposes the input signal such that the test signal dominates the input signal.

A digital circuit robustness verification method is provided that includes the following steps. An internal storage circuit and an external storage circuit corresponding to a circuit under test are set to store a plurality of random values and a configuration of the circuit under test for performing a predetermined function is set by a processing circuit. A driving signal corresponding to the predetermined function is transmitted to the circuit under test by a previous stage circuit, such that the circuit under test executes the predetermined function to further generate an output signal. The determination as to whether the output signal is correct or not is made by a next stage circuit, and the circuit under test is determined to pass a robustness verification when the output signal is correct.

A margin testing device includes at least one interface structured to connect to a device under test (DUT) one or more controllers structured to create a set of test signals based on a sequence of pseudo random data and one or more pre-defined parameters, and an output structured to send the set of test signals to the DUT. Methods and a system for testing a DUT with the disclosed margin tester and other testing device are also described.

Methods for testing an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). A set of representations is created that overlays power density information and clock gate physical locations of a set of clock gates in a critical sub-chip of the ASIC for test mode power analysis. The set of representations are further grouped in the sub-chip into various groups based on overlapping of the set of representations. Then, a set of test control signals is generated corresponding to each of the set of clock gates during at-speed test mode of operation such that each clock gate with overlapping representations receive different test control signals. Further, patterns are generated using a virtual constraint function to selectively enable the set of test control signals such that the set of test control signals are not activated simultaneously.