Defect-Sensitive Code Selection for ADC and DAC Testing

The patent applies preliminary action by performing pre-silicon verification to identify defect-sensitive codes before actual post-silicon testing. During pre-silicon verification, simulated faults are injected into the design model and codes that detect these faults are identified and stored. This preliminary identification allows the post-silicon testing to focus only on these critical codes rather than exhaustively testing all possible codes, thereby reducing testing time while maintaining high defect coverage.

The patent applies the taking out principle by extracting only the defect-sensitive codes from the complete set of possible codes. During pre-silicon verification, the system injects simulated faults and identifies which specific codes detect these faults. Only these extracted defect-sensitive codes are then used for post-silicon testing, eliminating the need to test non-critical codes and thereby reducing testing complexity and resource requirements while maintaining comprehensive defect coverage.

The patent applies partial action by performing repeat conversions only for the identified defect-sensitive codes rather than for all possible codes. The system determines an appropriate number of repeats R for the critical codes to achieve necessary measurement precision and resolution accuracy, while avoiding unnecessary repeats for non-critical codes. This selective approach maintains measurement precision for defect detection while significantly reducing overall testing time.