US 8,477,547 B2Granted

Semiconductor memory device and method of operating the same

AssigneeHynix Semiconductor Inc.

InventorJin Su Park

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A semiconductor memory device includes first and second memory groups that each comprise memory cells and redundancy memory cells; first main page buffers assigned to the first memory group and second main page buffers assigned to the second memory group; first main page buffers and a first redundancy page buffer coupled between the first memory group and first internal data lines and configured to store data for the program or read operation of the memory cells and the redundancy memory cells; and a data transfer circuit configured to transfer data from a first main page buffer of the first main page buffers that corresponds to the defective column of the first memory group to the at least one second redundancy page buffer before the program operation and transfer data of the at least one second redundancy page buffer to the first main page buffer.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A semiconductor memory device, comprising:

first and second memory groups that each comprise memory cells and redundancy memory cells;
first main page buffers assigned to the first memory group and second main page buffers assigned to the second memory group, wherein the first and second main page buffers are configured to each store data for a program operation or a read operation of the memory cells of the respective memory group;
at least one first redundancy page buffer assigned to the first memory group and at least one second redundancy page buffer assigned to the second memory group, wherein the at least one redundancy page buffers of the first and second memory groups are each configured to store data for a defective column of the respective memory group in the at least one redundancy memory cell of the respective memory group;
and
a data transfer circuit configured to transfer data from a first main page buffer of the first main page buffers that corresponds to the defective column of the first memory group to the at least one second redundancy page buffer before the program operation and transfer data of the at least one second redundancy page buffer to the first main page buffer corresponding to the defective column of the first memory group after the read operation.

2 more elements

A method of operating a semiconductor memory device, comprising:

inputting data to first main page buffers and at least one first redundancy page buffer that correspond to a first memory group and to second main page buffers and at least one second redundancy page buffer that correspond to a second memory group;
transferring the data inputted to a first main page buffer of the first main page buffers that corresponds to a defective column of the first memory group to the second redundancy page buffer when a number of defective columns within the first memory group becomes greater than a total number of defective columns within of the first memory group that are repairable using the at least one redundancy page buffer;
and
performing a program operation for storing the data of the first and the second main page buffers, the at least first redundancy page buffer and the at least second redundancy page buffer in memory cells and redundancy memory cells of the first and the second memory groups.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.