The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 02, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 20, 2000
Brett Debenham, Meridian, ID (US);
Kim Pierce, Meridian, ID (US);
Douglas J. Cutter, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Kurt Beigel, Boise, ID (US);
Fan Ho, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Patrick J. Mullarkey, Meridian, ID (US);
Dien Luong, Boise, ID (US);
Hua Zheng, Fremont, CA (US);
Michael Shore, Boise, ID (US);
Jeffrey P. Wright, Boise, ID (US);
Adrian E. Ong, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Todd A. Merritt, Boise, ID (US);
Micron Technology, Inc., Boise, ID (US);
Abstract
An integrated circuit memory device has a plurality of nonvolatile programmable elements which are used to store a pass/fail status bit at selected milestones in a test sequence. At selected points in the test process an element may be programmed to indicate that the device has passed the tests associated with the selected point in the process. Prior to performing further tests on the device, the element is read to verify that it passed previous tests in the test process. If the appropriate elements are not programmed, the device is rejected. A rejected device may be retested according to the previous test steps. Laser fuses, electrically programmable fuses or antifuses are used to store test results. The use of electrically writeable nonvolatile memory elements allows for programming of the elements after the device has been packaged.