Patent ID: 6618830
Filing Date: 2003-09-09
Classification: G01R

Abstract:
A system for generating a pruned diagnostic list of potential bridging faults in a circuit, the system comprising:a pattern generator operable to generate test patterns for testing a circuit; a tester in communication with the pattern generator and operable to apply the test patterns to the circuit and generate a plurality of resultant vectors; a stuck-at fault dictionary including a list of a plurality of nets of the circuit, each net having at least one expected response corresponding to a stuck-at fault at the net for comparison with at least one of the plurality of resultant vectors; a test analysis tool in communication with the pattern generator and the tester, the test analysis tool operable to create an initial logical diagnostic list of tested nets of the circuit associated with the potential stuck-at faults in the stuck-at fault dictionary in response to the expected response of each net and the plurality of resultant vectors; a diagnostic tool in communication with the test analysis tool and the tester, the diagnostic tool operable to create a final logical diagnostic list using the resultant vectors, stuck-at fault dictionary, and the initial logical diagnostic list, the final logical diagnostic list having a plurality of potential bridging faults ranked in order of logical probability; a physical database including physical data associated with each of a plurality of nets of the circuit; and a pruning module in communication with the diagnostic tool and the physical database, the pruning module operable to modify the final logical diagnostic list in response to the physical data to create the pruned diagnostic list, the pruned diagnostic list including a list of entries associated with a plurality of most probable potential bridging faults.