Assertion Based Functional Verification of MBIST Controller Using Coverage Analysis

For the functional validation of hardware designs, simulation with coverage analysis is still the primary means at RTL description of design. Here coverage analysis shows the way towards the optimal use of resource, validation or verification completeness and untested areas of HDL design. The complete coverage analysis of Memory Built in Self-Test (MBIST) controller using several code and functional coverage metrics is presented. Coverage metrics are used to keep the focus at assertions written to verify the functionality of MBIST controller. Use of assertions and coverage metrics gets rid-off massive test patterns to validate the MBIST controller design more strongly. This paper also presents the implementation of March algorithm based MBIST controller using System Verilog. With the help of assertions written in System Verilog and their coverage analysis, the test cases are reduced from 88 test cases to 25 test cases to achieve the approximately same functional coverage i.e. 97 % is also discussed in the paper.