A Heuristic Algorithm for Automatic Generation of March Tests

March test is one of the most popular memory test algorithms for its good fault coverage and linear complexity. However, designing an efficient March test for a complex memory fault set is a tedious task. This work designs a two-phase heuristic algorithm for automatic generation of March tests with two new observations. One observation is that some operations can be deleted from the march element, if other operations are inserted to sensitize the Loop-Sens fault, wherein the required initial state is equal to the expected faulty state. The other observation is that there exist chances to reduce the length of march sequence after some operation segments between march elements are exchanged, if the expected states of the operation segments in the different march elements match each other. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is effective and efficient. The generated March tests cover the target fault sets, and the complexities approach to those of the minimal March tests generated from the exhaustive methods for the specific fault sets.