Preface of Special Issue on VLSI Design and Test

The recent important advances in the area of VLSI design tests done in Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America, were submitted in the form of research papers at the International VLSI Conference, 2003. The research submissions were selected for best papers after a review of the relevance and technical contents. The excellent and interesting articles were selected for presentations. Thirteen papers were selected in the conference that included subjects and special issues in the VLSI studies. The selected papers and topics covered the areas of nano-scale devices and systems-on-chip, provide newer ideas, results, progress, and state-of-art techniques, and simulate further research in the area of VLSI design and tests. The VLSI and Electronic Design Automation is facing various challenges in design methods, design tools, design automation, manufacturing, technology, and test procedures.