Testability analysis and ATPG on behavioral RT-level VHDL

Abstract

This paper proposes an environment to address testability analysis and test pattern generation on VHDL descriptions at the RT-level. The proposed approach, based on a suitable fault model and an ATPG algorithm, is experimentally shown to provide a good estimate of the final gate-level fault coverage, and to give test patterns with excellent fault coverage properties. The approach, being based on an abstract representation, is particularly suited for large circuits, where gate-level ATPGs are often inefficient.