Design For Testing
Design for Test (aka "Design for Testability" or "DFT") is a name for design techniques that add certain testability features to a microelectronic hardware product design. The premise of the added features is that they make it easier to develop and apply manufacturing tests for the designed hardware. The purpose of manufacturing tests is to validate that the product hardware contains no defects that could, otherwise, adversely affect the product’s correct functioning.
Tests are applied at several steps in the hardware manufacturing flow and, for certain products, may also be used for hardware maintenance in the customer’s environment. The tests generally are driven by test programs that execute in Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) or, in the case of system maintenance, inside the assembled system itself. In addition to finding and indicating the presence of defects (i.e., the test fails), tests may be able to log diagnostic information about the nature of the encountered test fails. The diagnostic information can be used to locate the source of the failure.
In other words, the response of vectors(patterns) from a good circuit is compared with the response of vectors(using same patterns) from a DUT(device under test). If the response is the same or matches, the circuit is good. Otherwise, the circuit is faulty.
DFT plays an important role in the development of test programs and as an interface for test application and diagnostics. Automatic test pattern generation, or ATPG, is much easier if appropriate DFT rules and suggestions have been implemented.
Read more about Design For Testing: History, Objectives of DFT For Microelectronics Products, Looking Forward, Diagnostics, Scan Design, Debug Using DFT Features
Famous quotes containing the words design for, design and/or testing:
“I begin with a design for a hearse.
For Christ’s sake not black—
nor white either—and not polished!
Let it be weathered—like a farm wagon—”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
“Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Is this testing whether I’m a replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?”
—David Webb Peoples, U.S. screenwriter, and Ridley Scott. Rachel, Blade Runner, being tested to determine if she is human or machine (1982)