Patent · US Expired

System and method of testing a plurality of memory blocks of an integrated circuit in parallel

US7152192B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
15References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 20, 2005
Grant dateDec 19, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 7, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C2029/3202
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method of testing a plurality of memory blocks of an integrated circuit in parallel, wherein each memory block comprising data bit storage cells in an array of rows and columns, and wherein each row of storage cells is addressable to store a word of data bits having a width determined by the number of columns of the array, comprises the steps of: writing test data words in parallel to the rows of the plurality of memory blocks; reading out test data words in parallel from the rows of the plurality of memory blocks to a corresponding plurality of on-chip data word comparators; presenting corresponding expected data words in parallel to the plurality of on-chip data word comparators for comparison with the read out data words of the corresponding memory blocks; concurrently comparing corresponding data bits of the read out data words and expected data words in corresponding data bit comparators to generate a column status bit for each data bit comparison; latching the column status bit of a mismatch bit comparison in the corresponding data word comparator; and reading the column status bits of each on-chip data word comparator.

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