Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for improving yield in semiconductor devices by guaranteeing health of redundancy information

US7277336B2 · kind B2 · utility

4Cited by
51References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 28, 2004
Grant dateOct 2, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 28, 2024

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C29/76
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method is provided comprising reading a set of memory cells indicating whether stored redundancy information is reliable and, if the set of memory cells indicates that the stored redundancy information is reliable, determining whether to read primary memory or redundant memory based on the stored redundancy information. Another method is provided comprising reading a set of memory cells associated with a group of memory cells in a primary memory, the set of memory cells indicating whether data can be reliably stored in the group of memory cells; if the set of memory cells indicates that data can be reliably stored in the group of memory cells, storing data in the group of memory cells; and if the set of memory cells does not indicate that data can be reliably stored in the group of memory cells, storing data in a group of memory cells in a redundant memory. In another preferred embodiment, a method for providing memory redundancy is provided.

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