BIST of PCB interconnects using boundary-scan architecture

Abstract

The issues of printed circuit board (PCB) interconnect testing are addressed in the context of boundary-scan architecture. Boundary-scan architecture is treated here as the framework for a PCB level built-in self-test (BIST). A novel BIST method is developed which utilizes various features of the architecture. Boundary-scan architecture is shown to have the capability to generate time-efficient test vector sets. Response compaction within the boundary-scan chain is introduced to reduce shift out time as well as to simplify detection and diagnosis. However, the proposed BIST schemes require some extensions of the standard boundary-scan cells, and the schemes can work only if every boundary-scan cell of every IC on the PCB has the proposed extensions.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>