Presented embodiments facilitate efficient and effective flexible implementation of different types of testing procedures in a test system. In one embodiment, a test system comprises pre-qualifying test components, functional test components, a controller, a transceiver, and a switch. The pre-qualifying test components are configured to perform pre-qualifying testing on a device under test. The functional test components are configured to perform functional testing on the device under test. The controller is configured to direct selection between the pre-qualifying testing and functional testing. The transceiver is configured to transmit and receive signals to/from the device under test. The switch is configured to selectively couple the transceiver to the pre-qualifying test components and functional test components.

Physical or off-chip interfaces may be selectively bypassed in a boundary scan chain. A bypass control signal may be produced that indicates whether to bypass a selected one of the interfaces. In response to a first state of a bypass control signal, a multiplexer may couple the scan chain output of an interface boundary scan cell to the scan chain input of a successor boundary scan cell of the interface boundary scan cell. In response to a second state of the bypass control signal, the multiplexer may couple the scan chain output of a predecessor boundary scan cell of the interface boundary scan cell to the scan chain input of the successor boundary scan cell, bypassing the interface boundary scan cell.

Systems, devices and methods for high-speed I/O margin testing can screen high volumes of pre-production and production parts and identify cases where the electrical characteristics have changed enough to impact operation. The margin tester disclosed is lower cost, easier to use and faster than traditional BERT and scopes and can operate on the full multi-lane I/O links in their standard operating states with full loading and cross-talk. The margin tester assesses the electrical receiver margin of an operation multi-lane high speed I/O link with a device under test simultaneously in either or both directions. In a technology-specific form, an embodiment of the margin tester can be implemented as an add-in card margin tester to test motherboard slots of a mother board under test, or as a as a motherboard with slots to test add-in cards.

A design system for a test adapter card is provided. The circuitry to be tested on a motherboard is divided to form multiple modules to be tested, each of which corresponds to an interface to be tested. According to specifications of preset interfaces, the preset interface corresponding to each interface to be tested is selected, wherein the specifications of the preset interfaces conform to connector specifications of commercially available cables, multiple preset pins included in the selected preset interface completely cover the pins to be tested included in the corresponding interface to be tested, and the number of the preset pins included in the selected preset interface is greater than or equal to the number of the pins to be tested included in the corresponding interface to be tested. Design information required for producing the test adapter card is output based on the selection result and the division result.

Disclosed are methods, systems and devices for implementing built-in self-test (BIST) to be performed by an untrusted party and/or in an unsecure testing environment. In an embodiment, a test access port (TAP) on a device may enable a party to initiate execution of one or more BIST procedures on the device. Additionally, such a TAP may enable loading of encrypted instructions to be executed by one or more processors formed on a device under test.

Presented embodiments facilitate efficient and effective flexible implementation of different types of testing procedures in a test system. In one embodiment, a test system comprises pre-qualifying test components, functional test components, a controller, a transceiver, and a switch. The pre-qualifying test components are configured to perform pre-qualifying testing on a device under test. The functional test components are configured to perform functional testing on the device under test. The controller is configured to direct selection between the pre-qualifying testing and functional testing. The transceiver is configured to transmit and receive signals to/from the device under test. The switch is configured to selectively couple the transceiver to the pre-qualifying test components and functional test components.

The disclosure describes a process and apparatus for accessing devices on a substrate. The substrate may include only full pin JTAG devices (504), only reduced pin JTAG devices (506), or a mixture of both full pin and reduced pin JTAG devices. The access is accomplished using a single interface (502) between the substrate (408) and a JTAG controller (404). The access interface may be a wired interface or a wireless interface and may be used for JTAG based device testing, debugging, programming, or other type of JTAG based operation.

The present invention discloses an isolation circuit having test mechanism. An isolation circuit component performs signal transmission when a signal that a control terminal receives has an enabling state and performs signal isolation when the signal has a disabling state. The test circuit includes a multiplexer and a control circuit. Under a shifting operation state in a test mode, the control circuit controls the multiplexer to select an operation input terminal to receive and output an isolation control signal having the enabling state to the control input terminal. Under a capturing operation state in the test mode, the control circuit controls the multiplexer to select a test input terminal to receive and output the test signal to the control input terminal. The control circuit further determines whether the isolation circuit performs signal transmission or signal isolation according to the signals at the data input terminal and the data output terminal.

Various embodiments are described that relate to failure determination for an integrated circuit. An integrated circuit can be tested to determine if the integrated circuit is functioning properly. The integrated circuit can be subjected to a specific radiation such that the integrated circuit produces a response. This response can be compared against an expected response to determine if the response matches the expected response. If the response does not match the expected response, then the integrated circuit fails the test. If the response matches the expected response, then the integrated circuit passes the test.

A test method for a semiconductor device includes determining a contact failure between a first semiconductor chip and a second semiconductor chip during assembly of a semiconductor package including the first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip, using a test circuit embedded in the first semiconductor chip, and after the assembly of the semiconductor package, determining whether the semiconductor package is defective by using the test circuit.