Repair of semiconductor memory device via external command

Abstract

A semiconductor integrated circuit memory device is repaired by receiving an externally-supplied signal containing failure information that identifies at least row or column of memory cells in the memory device that has a failure. The externally-supplied signal contains failure information derived from error correction or other failure logs. The failure information is stored in the memory device and used for comparison against an incoming memory request. If a match is detected between the failure address information and the incoming memory request, then a redundant row or column is used for the memory access request. The repair feature may be performed during power up of the memory device, or normal operation may interrupted by a repair command that places the memory device in a standby mode for the repair.