Method for providing reconfigurable microelectronic circuit devices and

Abstract

The utility of microelectronic devices and the yield of a microelectronic fabricating process is increased by providing, in addition to the desired circuits, 'redundant' circuits of the same type. Each circuit has included, in at least one access lead, a nonvolatile, electrically alterable semiconductor device, which can be 'set' to either conduct or not conduct power to the circuit. During testing, only the desired number of devices are rendered accessible by 'setting' the semiconductor device to conduct. A microelectronic device having repetitive rows and/or columns for memory cells or logical processors is provided with additional rows and columns. An electrically alterable device is placed in each row and column. Upon the successful test of each row, the row enabling device is set to a conductive state. Any row containing a defective device is not enabled. If additional defects exist, and no redundant rows are available, redundant columns are disabled to isolate the defective devices.