%0 Journal Article %T Weighted Transition Based Reordering, Columnwise Bit Filling, and Difference Vector: A Power-Aware Test Data Compression Method %A Usha Mehta %A K. S. Dasgupta %A N. M. Devashrayee %J VLSI Design %D 2011 %I Hindawi Publishing Corporation %R 10.1155/2011/756561 %X Test data compression is the major issues for the external testing of IP core-based SoC. From a large pool of diverse available techniques for compression, run length-based schemes are most appropriate for IP cores. To improve the compression and to reduce the test power, the test data processing schemes like ¡°don't care bit filling¡± and ¡°reordering¡± which do not require any modification in internal structure and do not demand use of any test development tool can be used for SoC-containing IP cores with hidden structure. The proposed ¡°Weighted Transition Based Reordering-Columnwise Bit Filling-Difference Vector (WTR-CBF-DV)¡± is a modification to earlier proposed ¡°Hamming Distance based Reordering¡ªColumnwise Bit Filling and Difference vector.¡± This new method aims not only at very high compression but also aims at shift in test power reduction without any significant on-chip area overhead. The experiment results on ISCAS89 benchmark circuits show that the test data compression ratio has significantly improved for each case. It is also noteworthy that, in most of the case, this scheme does not involve any extra silicon area overhead compared to the base code with which it used. For few cases, it requires an extra XOR gate and feedback path only. As application of this scheme increases run length of zeroes in test set, as a result, the number of transitions during scan shifting is reduced. This may lower scan power. The proposed scheme can be easily integrated into the existing industrial flow. 1. Introduction The testing cost and testing power are the two well-known issues of current generation IC testing [1]. The test cost is directly related to test data volume and hence test data transfer time [2]. Test data compression can solve the problem of test cost by reducing the test data transfer time. The dynamic test power plays a major role in overall test power. The switching activity during test has a large contribution in dynamic power and hence in overall test power. The extensive use of IP cores in SoC has further exaggerated the testing problem. Because of the hidden structure of IP cores, the SoCs containing large IP cores can use only those test data compression techniques and switching reduction technique which do not require any modification or insertion in architecture of IP core. These methods should not also demand the use of ATPG, scan insertion, or any such testing tools. They should be capable to use ready-to-use test data coming with IP core for data compression and power reduction. This test data may be partially specified or fully %U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/vlsi/2011/756561/