PROGRAMMABLE CHIP ENABLE AND CHIP ADDRESS IN SEMICONDUCTOR MEMORY

• Main Authors: LONG PHAM, MAK ALEX, KUO TIEN CHIEN, TU LOC, CHEN JIAN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Korean
• Published: 19.04.2010
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; INFORMATION STORAGE; PHYSICS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; STATIC STORES

Memory die are provided with programmable chip enable circuitry to allow particular memory die to be disabled after packaging and/or programmable chip address circuitry to allow particular memory die to be readdressed after being packaged. In a multi-chip memory package, a memory die that fails package-level testing can be disabled and isolated from the memory package by a programmable circuit that overrides the master chip enable signal received from the controller or host device. To provide a continuous address range, one or more of the non-defective memory die can be re-addressed using another programmable circuit that replaces the unique chip address provided by the pad bonding. Memory chips can also be also be readdressed after packaging independently of detecting a failed memory die.