Design for Test (DFT) : From Zero to Hero

Unlock the secrets of semiconductor testing and become a DFT expert!

You've designed a brilliant chip. You've simulated every function and checked every timing path. You send it to fabrication, get the chips back... and half of them don't work. The design was perfect, but the silicon had physical defects. How do you find those defective chips before they reach your customers? The answer is Design for Test, or DFT.

This course is your complete guide to DFT, taking you from absolute beginner to someone who can confidently insert scan chains, run design rule checks, and achieve industry-standard test coverage. No prior DFT knowledge is required—just a solid understanding of digital logic design.

We start with the fundamentals: What are physical defects? How do we model them using stuck-at, bridging, and transistor faults? You'll learn the critical concepts of controllability and observability—why some nodes are easy to test and others are nearly impossible without special techniques.

Then we dive into the heart of DFT: scan chains. You'll understand exactly how a scan flip-flop works, how they're connected into chains, and how the three-phase process of Shift In, Capture, and Shift Out gives us complete control over every internal node. We'll cover the timing and area trade-offs and the essential design guidelines that make scan possible.

But this course isn't just theory. It's packed with practical, real-world knowledge. You'll learn the complete DFT compiler flow used by professional engineers every day. We'll walk through each step:

• RTL preparation for DFT—adding scan ports and multiplexing clocks and resets

• Test-ready compile with Synopsys tools

• Configuring scan chains using TCL constraints

• Defining DFT signals with set_dft_signal

• Creating test protocols and running pre-DFT design rule checks

• Previewing and inserting scan chains with insert_dft

• Post-DFT optimization and final DRC

• Test coverage analysis and interpreting results

Hands-On Learning:

This course includes two comprehensive labs and a final assignment where you'll apply everything you learn. You'll edit RTL to make it DFT-compatible, write real TCL constraints to configure scan architecture, and use Synopsys DFT Compiler to insert scan chains into an actual design. By the end, you'll have a complete scanned netlist and a test coverage report—exactly what you'd deliver in a real industry project.

Whether you're a student wanting to break into the semiconductor industry, a verification engineer looking to expand your skills, or an experienced designer who's never quite understood DFT, this course is for you. The chips we design go into cars, medical devices, and space missions. They have to work. DFT is how we make sure they do.

Enroll today and master Design for Test!