Scan Cell Grouping Algorithm for Low Power Design

The increasing size of very large scale integration (VLSI) circuits, high transistor density, and popularity of low-power circuit and system design are making the minimization of power dissipation an important issue in VLSI design. Test Power dissipation is exceedingly high in scan based environments wherein scan chain transitions during the shift of test data further reflect into significant levels of circuit switching unnecessarily. Scan chain or cell modification lead to reduced dissipations of power. The ETC algorithm of previous work has weak points. Taking all of this into account, we therefore propose a new algorithm. Its name is RE_ETC. The proposed modifications in the scan chain consist of Exclusive-OR gate insertion and scan cell reordering, leading to significant power reductions with absolutely no area or performance penalty whatsoever. Experimental results confirm the considerable reductions in scan chain transitions. We show that modified scan cell has the improvement of test efficiency and power dissipations.