Scan Design:

The scan-design strategy Ior testing has evolved to provide observability and
controllability at each register. In designs with scan, the registers operate in one oI two
modes. In normal mode, they behave as expected. In scan mode, they are connected to Iorm a
giant shiIt register called a scan chain spanning the whole chip. By applying N clock pulses
in scan mode, all iVbits oI state in the system can be shiIted out and new iV"bits oI state can
be shiIted in. ThereIore, scan mode gives easy observability and controllability oI every
register in the system.
The scan register is a D Ilip-Ilop preceded by a multiplexer. When the SCAN signal is
deasserted, the register behaves as a conventional register, storing data on the D input. When
SCAN is asserted, the data is loaded Irom the SI pin, which is connected in shiIt register
Iashion to the previous register Q output in the scan chain. For the circuit shown, to load the
scan chain, SCAN is asserted and CLK is pulsed eight times to load the Iirst two ranks oI 4-
bit registers with data. SCAN is deasserted and CLK is asserted Ior one cycle to operate the
circuit normally with predeIined inputs. SCAN is then reasserted and CLK asserted eight
times to read the stored data out. At the same time, the new register contents can be shiIted in
Ior the next test. Testing proceeds in this manner oI serially clocking the data through the
scan register to the right point in the circuit, running a single system clock cycle and serially
clocking the data out Ior observation. In this scheme, every input to the combinational block
can be controlled and every output can be observed. In addition, running a random pattern oI
l's and O's through the scan chain can test the chain itselI.
Test generation Ior this type oI test architecture can be highly automated. ATPG
techniques can be used Ior the combinational blocks and, as mentioned, the scan chain is
easily tested. The prime disadvantage is the area and delay impact oI the extra multiplexer in
the scan register. Designers (and managers alike) are in widespread agreement that this cost is
more than oIIset by the savings in debug time and production test cost.