Method for detecting permanent faults of an address decoder of an electronic memory device

摘要

An embodiment of a method for detecting permanent faults of an address decoder of an electronic memory device including a memory block formed by a plurality of memory cells, including the steps of: selecting an address, which identifies a selected set of memory cells; writing at the selected address a code word generated on the basis of an information word, of the selected address, and of an error-correction code; and then detecting an error within a word stored at the selected address. The method moreover includes the steps of: selecting a set of excitation addresses; writing a test word at the selected address, and then writing an excitation word at each excitation address; and next comparing the test word with a new word stored at the selected address.

主权项

1. A test module, comprising:
an error detecting module configured to detect an error at a first memory location having an address that corresponds to portions of an address decoder; a first submodule configured to write first test data to the first memory location in response to detection of the error; a second submodule configured to write second test data to second memory locations having respective addresses that each correspond to a subgroup of the portions of the address decoder in response to detection of the error, the second test data different than the first test data; a third submodule configured to read data from the first memory location after writing of the second test data by the second submodule; and a fourth submodule configured to compare the data read by the third submodule to the first test data and indicate that a fault exists in the address decoder if the data read by the third submodule and first test data are not equal.