Automatic Test Pattern Generation
ATPG (acronym for both Automatic Test Pattern Generation and Automatic Test Pattern Generator) is an electronic design automation method/technology used to find an input (or test) sequence that, when applied to a digital circuit, enables automatic test equipment to distinguish between the correct circuit behavior and the faulty circuit behavior caused by defects. The generated patterns are used to test semiconductor devices after manufacture, and in some cases to assist with determining the cause of failure (failure analysis.) The effectiveness of ATPG is measured by the amount of modeled defects, or fault models, that are detected and the number of generated patterns. These metrics generally indicate test quality (higher with more fault detections) and test application time (higher with more patterns). ATPG efficiency is another important consideration. It is influenced by the fault model under consideration, the type of circuit under test (full scan, synchronous sequential, or asynchronous sequential), the level of abstraction used to represent the circuit under test (gate, register-transistor, switch), and the required test quality.
Read more about Automatic Test Pattern Generation: Basics of ATPG, The Stuck-at Fault Model, Combinational ATPG, Sequential ATPG, ATPG and Nanometer Technologies, Algorithmic Methods, Relevant Conferences
Famous quotes containing the words automatic, test, pattern and/or generation:
“The ruin of the human heart is self-interest, which the American merchant calls self-service. We have become a self- service populace, and all our specious comforts—the automatic elevator, the escalator, the cafeteria—are depriving us of volition and moral and physical energy.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)
“The first reading of a Will, where a person dies worth anything considerable, generally affords a true test of the relations’ love to the deceased.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)
“For what is wedlock forcèd, but a hell,
An age of discord and continual strife?
Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss,
And is a pattern of celestial peace.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There is such a thing as food and such a thing as poison. But the damage done by those who pass off poison as food is far less than that done by those who generation after generation convince people that food is poison.”
—Paul Goodman (1911–1972)