A multiple defect diagnosis methodology consisting of a defect site identification and elimination method, a path-based defect site elimination method, and a defect site selection and ranking method is described. The flexibility of the diagnosis method in handling various defect behaviors and arbitrary failing pattern characteristics is demonstrated through extensive simulations. Unlike some competing approaches, the search space of the diagnosis method does not grow exponentially with the number of defects. Results from over 1700 simulated and 131 failing ICs show that this method can effectively diagnose circuits that are affected by a large (≫20) or small number of defects of various types. Specifically, when diagnosing circuits with more than 20 defects, our method identifies 65% of them, and the number of sites reported per actual defective site is, on average, 1.17. For circuits affected by two defects, these numbers change to 86% and 1.85, respectively. Finally, 84% of our top-ranked sites are actual defect sites.
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