Design For Testability

Implementation Of PODEM Algorithm

Outline:
Path-Oriented Decision Making(PODEM) is an Automatic Test Pattern Generation
(ATPG) algorithm which was created to overcome the inability of D-Algorithm (D-ALG) to
generate test vectors for circuits involving Error Correction and Translation. The aim of this project
is to implement the PODEM algorithm to generate test vectors for a given fault. A circuit is
considered for verification and will be described in the form of a customized Netlist. Various
subroutines of the PODEM algorithm are run on the circuit, the test vectors generated by the
program are compared with the manual implementation of the algorithm.

Algorithm:
PODEM proves to be more efficient as compared to a D-ALG because it limits its search
space only to Primary Inputs (PIs) of the circuits. D-ALG on the other hand has a search space
comprising of all the internal nodes of the circuit along with the PIs. The first ob-jective of the
algorithm is to sensitize the fault. After the fault is sensitized the objectives are changed in order
to propagate the fault to a Primary Output (PO). Function OBJEC-TIVE is used to determine
objectives for the program. Depending on the current objective, a function called BACKTRACE
is used to determine the value of one of the PIs. For every PI assigned, logic simulation is
performed to check for two conditions: desensitiza-tion of the fault and disappearance of fault
propagation path (also known as X-PATH CHECK). If any one of the two conditions is violated,
the program backtracks and changes the value assigned to the most recent PI. This process of
assigning values to PIs is repeated till PIs form a test vector or no more combinations of PIs are
possible. The latter case implies that the test is untestable.

Page 1|2
Implementation of PODEM algorithm

Design For Testability

Plan of Action:
The following steps will be performed by the algorithm in C++.

1. The Algorithm takes text file as input which contains netlist of the circuit to be tested
2. Setting all the nodes to x
3. Sensitizing the fault
4. Determining the objective to be achieved
5. Mapping the Objective into PI assignment
6. Propagating the fault value and X-Path check
7. Printing the Test vector through which the fault can be detected.

Current Status:

Literature survey completed.

Implementation of backtrace and x path check is yet to be done. Around 50% of

implementation is completed.

The algorithm should be tested for different combinational circuits.

Project Members:
1. I Raja Bilwakeshwar - 201541622
2. Nivin Paul PV - 201541576
3. Aditya Bhadra - 201541626

Roles and Responsibilities:

1. Literature Survey: All
2. PODEM Implementation: All
4. Testing: Nivin and Bilwakeshwar
5. Report: Aditya

Page 2|2
Implementation of PODEM algorithm