Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Mitsuhiko Kosakai

Makoto Segawa

Yoichi Suzuki

Yasuo Naruke

Akihiro Mishima

An improved semiconductor memory device capable of easily detecting the location of a defective bit line and a defective memory cell as a leakage current path for a short time is provided. A region flowing a leakage current no smaller than a predetermined value is determined by detecting one of a first large region and a remaining second large region, either of said first and second large regions being selected by simultaneously selecting a predetermined number of said column selection lines. Then, a region flowing a leakage current no smaller than a predetermined value is determined by detecting one of a first small region and a remaining second small region, said first and second small regions constituting said one of the first and second large regions, either of said first and second small regions being selected by simultaneously selecting a predetermined number of said column selection lines. For this purpose, an address signal output control circuit is provided within the semiconductor memory device. The address signal output control circuit is supplied with an address output control signal as externally given as a control signal for the purpose of selecting said row selection line by taking control of said row addressing signal in order to perform the control process as described above.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa-ken, Japan

Mitsuhiko Kosakai