scan cell, scan chain

Scan cell is one of the DFT technique , to test the sequential circuits in the Asic/Soc design. Normal D flip flop are converted to scan flip flop, if the tool meets the following criteria

• Clock of the flip flop must be controllable
• The set/reset of the flops must be inactive during the shift mode.

Once the all the flops in the design meet the above two rules the tool will convert the d flops to scan flops by adding a mux as shown in figure above. Then the tools will stitch the scan cells into a scan chain according to the design requirements.

When Scan Enable is 0 (SE=0), all the scan chains in the design will be disconnected and the flops are connected to comb. logic

When Scan Enable is 1 (SE=1) , combinational logic will be bypassed and all scan cells will be connected to form a scan chain

When SE=1 , patterns are loaded to the scan chains and the data from the comb logic are captured when SE=0