Techniques to reduce the patterns count without losing coverage

During the DFT validation patterns are used which are generated during ATPG stage, even these patterns(in Still, wgl format) are used to test a chip on ATE. As there is limitation on memory of the ATE, size of the patterns generated must be with in the memory limit of ATE. Thus we have to reduce the patterns count/pattern volume for a design without losing the coverage. Few of the technique are

• For pattern reduction, First step is chain balancing. During scan insertion scan chains present in the design must be balanced(of equal length), so that tool will insert the less dummy patterns for reaching a required flip flop.
• we can also include compression on the chains. This means if we are having the compression factor of 2 then your 1 scan chain will get divided into 2 inside the device reducing your chain length (flops per scan chain), thus less patterns are required.

compression ratio:
The compression ratio in DFT used to reduce the TESTER Application time and TESTER data volume(size of pattern).