Efficient redundancy calculation system and method for various types of memory devices

• US 6,725,403 B1
• Filed: 11/02/1999
• Issued: 04/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Polaris Innovations Limited (Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies Richmond LP (Infineon Technologies AG)
• Inventors: Schmoelz, Paul Josef Maria
• Primary Examiner(s): Decady, Albert
• Assistant Examiner(s): BRITT, CYNTHIA H
• Application Number:
  US09/432,064
• Time in Patent Office: 1,631 Days
• Field of Search: 714/718, 714/719, 714/723
• US Class Current: 714/723
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/44 Indication or identification of errors, e.g. for repair

Abstract

A method for calculating and analyzing redundancies for semiconductor memories, in accordance with the present invention, includes providing a memory device including at least one memory chip. The at least one memory chip includes a redundancy calculation region. The at least one memory chip is tested to determine failure addresses of failed components on each memory chip. The addresses of the failed components are input to the redundancy calculation region to compare the failure addresses to previous failure addresses stored in the redundancy calculation region to determine if new failures have been discovered. If a match exists between the previous failure addresses and the failure addresses, the failure addresses which match are terminated. Otherwise, the failure addresses are stored in the redundancy calculation region. It is then determined if the at least one memory chip is fixable based on the new failures which have been discovered. A system, preferably for on-chip implementation is also included.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing failures for semiconductor memories comprising the steps of:

providing a memory device including at least one memory chip, the at least one memory chip including a redundancy calculation region;

testing the at least one memory chip to determine failure addresses of failed components on each memory chip;

inputting the addresses of the failed components to the redundancy calculation region;

comparing the failure addresses to previous failure addresses stored in the redundancy calculation region to determine if new failures have been discovered;

if a match exists between the previous failure addresses and the failure addresses, terminating the failure addresses which match, otherwise storing the failure addresses in the redundancy calculation region;

determining if the at least one memory chip is fixable based on the new failures which have been discovered.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the memory device includes one of a single memory chip and a packaged multichip module.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of testing the at least one memory chip includes employing built in self testing.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the components include one of a single memory cell, a row and a column.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the row includes a plurality of devices.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the column includes a plurality of devices.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the method is performed on-chip on the at least one memory chip.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of inputting the addresses of the failed components to the redundancy calculation region includes the steps of inputting the addresses of the failed components to comparators to compare the addresses of the failed components which are currently discovered to the previous failure addresses stored in accumulators.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of determining if the at least one memory chip is fixable based on the new failures which have been discovered is performed by accumulating a number of matches between failure addresses and stored failure addresses and comparing the number of matches to a threshold value such that a matching event which causes the number of matches to equal the threshold is employed to designate the address of components to be repaired.

10. A method for analyzing failures for semiconductor memories comprising the steps of:

providing a memory device including at least one memory chip, the at least one memory chip including a redundancy calculation region, the redundancy calculation region adapted to receive failure addresses of failed components, the redundancy calculation region further comprising;

comparators for comparing the failure addresses to previous failure addresses to determine if new failures have been discovered,

a memory for selectively storing addresses of failures,

decision logic for determining if the memory device is fixable based on the new failures which have been discovered;

testing the at least one memory chip to determine failure addresses of failed components on each memory chip;

inputting the addresses of the failed components to the redundancy calculation region;

comparing the failure addresses to previous failure addresses stored in the redundancy calculation region by employing the comparators;

if a match exists between the previous failure addresses and the failure addresses, terminating the failure addresses which match and incrementing a match count, otherwise storing the failure addresses in the redundancy calculation region; and

if the match count meets a threshold value, designating a must repair event to repair the component using redundancies.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the memory device includes one of a single memory chip and a packaged multichip module.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the step of testing the at least one memory chip includes employing built in self testing.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the components include one of a single memory cell, a row and a column.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the row includes a plurality of devices.

15. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the column includes a plurality of devices.

16. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the method is performed on-chip on the at least one memory chip.

17. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the step of inputting the addresses of the failed components to the redundancy calculation region includes the steps of inputting the addresses of the failed components to the comparators to compare the addresses of the failed components which are currently discovered to the previous failure addresses stored in accumulators.

18. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the step of designating a must repair event includes the steps of accumulating a number of matches between failure addresses and stored failure addresses and comparing the number of matches to a threshold value such that a matching event which causes the number of matches to equal the threshold is employed to designate the address of components to be repaired.

19. A system for analyzing failures for semiconductor memories comprising:

a self testing memory device including at least one memory chip adapted to determine failure addresses of failed components on the at least one memory chip, the at least one memory chip including a redundancy calculation region;

the redundancy calculation region adapted to receive failure addresses of failed components, the redundancy calculation region further comprising;

comparators for comparing the failure addresses to previous failure address to determine if new failures have been discovered, said failure addresses compared by said comparators comprising failure addresses not previously matched to a stored failure address;

a memory for selectively storing address of failures which match previous failure addresses; and

decision logic for determining if the memory device is fixable based on the new failures which have been discovered.

20. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the memory device includes one of a single memory chip and a packaged multichip module.

21. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the at least one memory chip includes built in self testing.

22. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the components include one of a single memory cell, a row and a column.

23. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the redundancy calculation region includes additional comparators to compare a number of matches between new failure addresses and previously stored failure addresses to a threshold value for designation a must-repair event.

24. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the redundancy calculation region includes adders to increment the number of matches when a match occurs.

25. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the at least one memory chip includes a plurality of redundancy calculation regions which are pipelined to store addresses of a plurality of failed components.

26. The system as recited in claim 25, wherein the pipeline includes latches disposed between the redundancy calculation regions to provide synchronization therebetween.