Aids to Test Generation for Boards With Complex Vendor Devices.

Circuit packs designed today frequently use complex VLSI devices which are obtained from outside vendors, such as microprocessors and digital signal processors. These devices are like black boxes and are difficult to model for simulation and test generation purposes. Standard algorithmic test generation approaches can't practically be applied at the device or board level. As a result, In-Circuit or functional test generation for those devices and the boards employing them is a manual, tedious, and expensive process. This paper will discuss several new developments which aid test generation for such board designs. When the test generation activity is moved from an ATE environment to a CAE system environment where state of the art simulation techniques are available, cost and interval improvements can result. A generic process will be presented along with case studies supporting the approach.