Low-power static column redundancy scheme for semiconductor memories

Abstract

A static column redundancy scheme for a semiconductor memory such as an eDRAM. By utilizing the existing scan registers for SRAM array testing, the column redundancy information of each bank or each microcell of the memory chip can be scanned, stored and programmed during the power-on period. Two programming methods are disclosed to find the column redundancy information on the fly. In the first method, the column redundancy information is first stored in the SRAM, and is then written into the program registers of the corresponding bank or microcell location. In the second method, the column redundancy information is loaded directly into the program registers of a bank or microcell location according to the bank address information without loading the SRAM. Since the new static column redundancy scheme does not need to compare the incoming addresses, it eliminates the use of control and decoding circuits, which significantly reduces the power consumption for memory macros.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.