Testability Improvements Based on the Combination of Analytical and Evolutionary Approaches at RT Level

design for testability, scan technique, scan register, scan chain, state-space analysis, evolutionary approach, genetic algorithm

In the paper a new heuristic approach to the RTL testability analysis is presented. It is shown how the values of controllability/observability factors reflecting the structure of the circuit and other factors can be utilised to find solutions which are sub-optimal but still acceptable for the designer. The goal of the methodology is to enable the identification of such testability solutions which satisfy concrete requirements in terms of the number of registers included into the scan chain, the area overhead and the test application time as a result of RTL testability analysis. The approach is based on the combination of analytical and evolutionary approaches at the RT level.