VIVA / LEISTE

What is VIVA?

With the popularity of embedded applications and portable devices, power consumption of systems receives higher attention throughout all design levels. The programme of "Grundlagen und Verfahren verlustarmer Informationsverarbeitung (VIVA)", sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), studies fundamentals and methods for low-power information processing.

Project: Self-test under Power and Energy Constraints

Software-based self-test (SBST) is viewed as a promising alternative as traditional hardware-based test methods for microprocessors due to its benefits of at-speed test, dispense with expensive test equipments and low design-for-testability (DfT) overhead. Its principle is illustrated in the following figure which involves generation, storage and execution of test programs.

Test quality is maximized under the consideration of the structure of the core under test (CUT) during test program synthesis. The SBST operates under the functional mode so that it meets the peak power specification of the system; nevertheless, it is of great significance for reliability reasons to optimize programs causing above-average switching activities. It is particularly true when such a test is deployed autonomously where both average power and energy consumption play a crucial role. This project proposed a novel method that tackles fault coverage, test length, energy and average power consumption at the same time.