A method for evaluating tests for fabricated integrated circuit (IC) chips includes providing, design for fault injection (DfFI) instances of an IC design that characterize activatable states of controllable elements in an IC chip based on the IC design. The method also includes fault simulating the IC design a corresponding identified test suite to determine a signature for faults and simulating the IC design with the DfFI instances activated to determine a signature for the DfFI instances. The method includes generating a DfFI-fault equivalence dictionary based on a comparison of the signature of the faults and DfFI instances and generating tests for a fabricated IC chip based on the IC design. The method includes receiving test result data characterizing the tests being applied against the fabricated IC chip with the DfFI instances activated and analyzing the test result data to determine an ability of the tests to detect the faults.