SpeedGrade: An RTL path delay fault simulator

In the past, research on delay fault testing has been focused on test generation using various delay fault models on full scan gate level netlists. These tests are not very suitable for speed-binning since the confidence that the slowest paths have been covered is low. We have developed a novel methodology with an accompanying tool flow called SpeedGrade that performs path delay fault simulation using an RTL (Register Transfer Level) simulator. This novel method was used to translate the gate level path excitation conditions into higher level of abstraction without loss of accuracy. The higher efficiency, of the RTL-based solution allowed for fault grading of functional patterns against the top critical paths in commercial microprocessor designs. The RTL-based approach also had the added benefit of being easier to use for debugging critical paths.