access icon free Input vulnerability-aware approximate triple modular redundancy: higher fault coverage, improved search space, and reduced area overhead

Area overhead reduction in conventional triple modular redundancy (TMR) by using approximate modules has been proposed in the literature. However, the vulnerability of approximate TMR (ATMR) in the case of a critical input, where faults can lead to errors at the output, is yet to be studied. Here, identifying critical input space through automatic test pattern generation and making it unavailable for the technique of approximating modules of TMR (ATMR) were focused, which involves a prime implicant reduction expansion. The results indicate that the proposed method provides 75–98% fault coverage, which amounts up to 43.8% improvement over that achieved previously. The input vulnerability-aware approach enables a drastic reduction in search space, ranging from 41.5 to 95.5%, for the selection of candidate ATMR modules and no compromise on the area overhead reduction is noticed.

Inspec keywords: automatic test pattern generation; fault diagnosis; redundancy; radiation hardening (electronics)

Other keywords: vulnerability-aware approximate triple modular redundancy; ATMR modules; automatic test pattern generation

Subjects: Reliability; Digital circuit design, modelling and testing; Semiconductor integrated circuit design, layout, modelling and testing; Radiation effects (semiconductor technology)

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