New March Tests for Multiport RAM Devices

This paper describes three new march tests for multiport memories. A read (or write) port in such a memory consists of an n-bit address register, an n-to-2ⁿ-bit decoder (with column multiplexers for the column addresses) and drivers, and a K-bit data register. This approach gives comprehensive fault coverage for both array and multiport decoder coupling faults. It lends itself to a useful BIST implementation with a modest area overhead that tests these faults and achieves low test application time.