Patent · US Expired

Redundancy circuit and method for providing word lines driven by a shift register

US5812465A · kind A · utility

1Cited by
25References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 2, 1996
Grant dateSep 22, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 2, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C29/832
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The present invention disables defective rows in a FIFO or other buffer where the word lines of the FIFO buffer are driven by a shift register scheme. Additional enabled rows may be placed within the normal memory array. The additional enabled rows are substituted, as needed, for one or more defective rows. As a result, a defective row can be disabled without effecting the operation of the FIFO, particularly the read or write data path. In one example, the disabling effect is achieved by using one or more laser fuses. The present invention can be used to effectively bypass any single shift register element or a multiple number of shift register elements.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.