Patent ID: 8099705

Claim:
A method for selecting a sub-group of state-change difference vectors from a group of state-change difference vectors for testing a circuit, comprising: using a computer to generate the group state-change difference vectors, wherein a given state-change difference vector corresponds to a change in a state of circuit components in the circuit, and wherein one or more elements in the given state-change difference vector specify state transitions for one or more of the circuit components; determining values of a performance metric for the group of state-change difference vectors when the circuit fails during testing, wherein a given value of the performance metric corresponds to the given state-change difference vector; for a given sub-circuit in a set of sub-circuits in the circuit and the group of state-change difference vectors, calculating statistical relationships between a transition type in the given sub-circuit when the circuit failed during testing and transition types in other sub-circuits in the set of sub-circuits, wherein a statistical relationship is determined for each pairing of the given sub-circuit with one of the other sub-circuits; repeating the calculating for all of the sub-circuits in the set of sub-circuits; and selecting the sub-group of state-change difference vectors based on the calculated statistical relationships, wherein the selected state-change difference vectors are those that result in failure of the circuit during testing for a range of values of the performance metric.