Since its introduction as an industry standard in 1990, boundary-scan (also known as JTAG) has enjoyed growing popularity for board level manufacturing test applications. Boundary-scan has rapidly become the technology of choice for building reliable high technology electronic products with a high degree of testability. Due to the low-cost and IC level access capabilities of boundary-scan, its use has expanded beyond traditional board test applications into product design and service.

This tutorial provides a brief overview of the boundary-scan architecture and the new technology trends that make using boundary-scan essential for dramatically reducing development and production costs, speeding test development through automation, and improving product quality because of increased fault coverage. The tutorial also describes the various uses of boundary-scan and the tools available today for supporting boundary-scan technology.