System level interconnect test in a tristate environment

System interconnect test is a significant challenge. In this paper we describe a practical system level interconnect test scheme which has been successfully implemented in a commercial environment. This test scheme is responsible for uncovering faults in driver/receiver elements, card level interconnects and backplane interconnects. It is used both as a manufacturing test and in field service. We point out the unique problems which must be addressed to carry out interconnect test at the system level and present our solutions. Our approach involves generating interconnect test data in the system at test time with knowledge of the current system configuration and individual component (card level) netlists. Interconnect tests that represent a good compromise between efficiency and diagnostic capability at the system level are presented and analyzed in detail.< >