A new probabilistic approach for estimating fault detection probability

A new approach to calculate fault detection probabilities is presented. Fault-free simulation is used in the approach. The quantities of controllability and observability are defined as probabilities of controlling and observing the nodes in the circuit. The probability distribution of random signals on the circuit nodes is analyzed, and it is proved that controllability is in normal distribution. Thus the unbiasing estimation of the fault detection probability can be obtained. According to the concept of observability, we deal with the fan-out nodes. The fault coverages for actual circuits obtained from this approach agree favorably with the fault simulation results.