Because of the difficulties or complexities encountered when formulating acceptable tests for integrated circuits as they become larger and more complex, it is now essential to consider testing at the design stage of a VLSI circuit or system using VLSI parts, and not as an afterthought once the design has been completed. The old-fashioned separation between a design engineer who designs a circuit or system and a test engineer in a separate office who takes the design and then attempts to formulate an acceptable test strategy for it is no longer viable. Design for testability, sometimes called design for test and almost always abbreviated to DFT, is therefore the philosophy of considering at the design stage how the circuit or system shall be tested, rather than leaving it as a tack on exercise at the end of the design phase.

Inspec keywords: design for testability; VLSI

Other keywords: design engineer; design phase; test engineer; VLSI circuit; integrated circuits; VLSI parts; DFT; design stage; structured design for testability techniques; test strategy

Subjects: Semiconductor integrated circuit design, layout, modelling and testing