SACSR:a low power BIST method for sequential circuits

A novel built-in-self-test (BIST) method called seeded autonomous cyclic shift register (SACSR) is presented to reduce test power of the sequential circuit. The key idea is to use a pseudorandom pattern generator and several XOR gates to generate seeds that share fewer test vectors. The generated seed is taken XOR operation with a cyclic shift register, and the single input change (SIC) sequence is generated. The proposed scheme is easily implemented and can reduce the switching activities of the circuit under test (CUT) greatly. Experimental results on ISCAS89 benchmarks show that on average more than 63% power reduction can be achieved. It also demonstrates that the generated test vectors attain high fault coverage for stuck-at fault and transition fault coverage with short test length.