MECHANISMS FOR BUILT-IN SELF REPAIR OF MEMORY DEVICES USING FAILED BIT MAPS AND OBVIOUS REPAIRS

摘要

Failure bit map (FBM) data and a built-in-self-test-repair (BISTR) module enable collecting and analyzing FBM data of an entire memory to identify the best repairing method (or mechanism) to make repairs. As a result, the repair method is better and more efficient than algorithms (or methods) known to the inventors, which only utilize partial (or incomplete) failure data. At the same time, the compressed data structures used for the FBMs keep the resources used to capture the FBM data and to repair the failed cells relatively limited.