Techniques and algorithms for fault grading of FPGA interconnect test configurations

摘要

Conventional fault simulation techniques for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are very complicated and time consuming. The alternative, FPGA fault emulation technique, is incomplete and can be used only after the FPGA chip is manufactured. In this paper, we present efficient algorithms for computing the fault coverage of a given FPGA test configuration. The faults considered are opens and shorts in FPGA interconnects. The presented technique is able to report all detectable and undetectable faults and, compared with conventional methods, is orders of magnitude faster.