Partition-able storage of test results using inactive storage elements

• Main Authors: Patel, Pradip, Rodko, Daniel, Huott, William V, Knips, Thomas J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 29.05.2018
• Subjects: MEASURING; MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES; PHYSICS; TESTING

Aspects of present disclosure relate to an integrated circuit chip (chip), a method and a computer program product of testing the chip. The method of testing the chip may include: partitioning the chip into various partitions, loading built-in self-test (BIST) test instructions into BIST engine and initializing a current partition counter, performing BIST test on current partition, transmitting test results of the current partition of the chip to an external test data storage, checking whether current partition is the last partition, incrementing current partition counter, and returning to performing BIST on a next partition when current partition is not the last partition, and exiting BIST test when current partition is the last partition. The test results may be stored in one or more inactive storage elements of the chip. The number of partitions may include: one partition, a predetermined number of partitions, and a variable number of partitions.