TESTING ASYNCHRONOUS CIRCUITS - A SURVEY

Asynchronous circuit design has been studied for decades, but it has o nly recently been feasible to construct large and efficient asynchrono us systems. The inherent differences between asynchronous and synchron ous circuits, primarily that asynchronous circuits do not have a globa l clock, necessitate a review of the testing techniques used for synch ronous circuits and a re-evaluation of the trade-offs involved. This p aper surveys different techniques for checking whether an asynchronous circuit has fabrication defects. These techniques include approaches to self-checking design, methods for test generation, design for testa bility, and delay test of asynchronous circuits.