A memory device includes a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells arranged in a plurality of columns including a normal column and a redundancy column for repairing the normal column, a plurality of peripheral logic circuits including a normal peripheral logic circuit and a redundancy peripheral logic circuit for repairing the normal peripheral logic circuit, and a first path selection logic circuit configured to form first paths between the plurality of columns and the plurality of peripheral logic circuits, based on at least one defect from among a defect in at least one of the plurality of columns or a defect in at least one of the plurality of peripheral logic circuits.

The present invention provides a data-storage device. The data-storage device includes a flash memory and a controller. The flash memory has a plurality of blocks and each of the blocks has a plurality of pages. The blocks include a plurality of bad blocks that are labeled as damaged. The controller selects one of the bad blocks as a test block, and reads the pages in the test block to determine whether the pages in the test block are damaged. When all the pages in the test block are undamaged, the controller labels the test block as a spare block.

A method of repairing a memory device may include collecting fail information on fail cells in a multi-block memory, classifying the fail cells into first and second types, and repairing the fail cells in the multi-block memory using one or more of a global spare memory, a local spare memory, and a common spare memory, based on the fail information.

Apparatus and methods for soft post package repair are disclosed. One such apparatus can include memory cells in a package, volatile memory configured to store defective address data responsive to entering a soft post-package repair mode, a match logic circuit and a decoder. The match logic circuit can generate a match signal indicating whether address data corresponding to an address to be accessed matches the defective address data stored in the volatile memory. The decoder can select a first group of the memory cells to be accessed instead of a second group of the memory cells responsive to the match signal indicating that the address data corresponding to the address to be accessed matches the defective address data stored in the volatile memory. The second group of the memory cells can correspond to a replacement address associated with other defective address data stored in non-volatile memory of the apparatus.

A memory device includes a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells arranged in a plurality of columns including a normal column and a redundancy column for repairing the normal column, a plurality of peripheral logic circuits including a normal peripheral logic circuit and a redundancy peripheral logic circuit for repairing the normal peripheral logic circuit, and a first path selection logic circuit configured to form first paths between the plurality of columns and the plurality of peripheral logic circuits, based on at least one defect from among a defect in at least one of the plurality of columns or a defect in at least one of the plurality of peripheral logic circuits.

A nonvolatile memory circuit may include: a cell array including a first region comprising a plurality of first cell groups and a second region comprising a plurality of second cell groups, each of the first and second cell groups having one or more nonvolatile memory cells; and a control unit suitable for controlling the cell array to sequentially output repair addresses of the plurality of cells groups included in a region which is not over used among the first and second regions when one of the first and second regions is over used.

Apparatus and methods for soft post package repair are disclosed. One such apparatus can include memory cells in a package, volatile memory configured to store defective address data responsive to entering a soft post-package repair mode, a match logic circuit and a decoder. The match logic circuit can generate a match signal indicating whether address data corresponding to an address to be accessed matches the detective address data stored in the volatile memory. The decoder can select a first group of the memory cells to be accessed instead of a second group of the memory cells responsive to the match signal indicating that the address data corresponding to the address to be accessed matches the defective address data stored in the volatile memory. The second group of the memory cells can correspond to a replacement address associated with other defective address data stored in non-volatile memory of the apparatus.

Memory cells in a spin-torque magnetic random access memory (MRAM) include at least two magnetic tunnel junctions within each memory cell, where each memory cell only stores a single data bit of information. Access circuitry coupled to the memory cells are able to read from and write to a memory cell even when one of the magnetic tunnel junctions within the memory cell is defective and is no longer functional. Self-referenced and referenced reads can be used in conjunction with the multiple magnetic tunnel junction memory cells. In some embodiments, writing to the memory cell forces all magnetic tunnel junctions into a known state, whereas in other embodiments, a subset of the magnetic tunnel junctions are forced to a known state.

A large-scale integrated circuit with built-in self-repair (BISR) circuitry for enabling redundancy repair for embedded memories in each of a plurality of processor cores with embedded built-in self-test (BIST) circuitry. The BISR circuitry receives and decodes BIST data from the embedded memories into fail signature data in a physical-aware form on which repair analysis can be performed. The fail signature data is reformatted into a unified repair format, such that a fuse encoder circuit can be used to encode fuse patterns in that unified repair format for a repair entity for each of the embedded memories. The fuse patterns are reconfigured into the appropriate order for storing in shadow fuse registers associated with the specific embedded memories.

A nonvolatile memory circuit may include: a cell array including a first region comprising a plurality of first cell groups and a second region comprising a plurality of second cell groups, each of the first and second cell groups having one or more nonvolatile memory cells; and a control unit suitable for controlling the cell array to sequentially output repair addresses of the plurality of cells groups included in a region which is not over used among the first and second regions when one of the first and second regions is over used.