Placement and routing for wafer scale memory

摘要

An architecture for wafer scale memories and a placement method replaces defective chips with spare chips in a memory module so as to provide minimum critical signal delay. The SDRAM memory chips are classified into normal chips and spare chips, where the normal chips are formed into groups such as rows or columns, and the spare chips are used to replace defective normal chips. A delay model for metal lines and vias is used to compute the signal delay for placement and routing. The placement problem is modeled as a bipartite graph and solved using a branch and bound algorithm to obtain a chip replacement configuration having the shortest critical signal delay. Also described is a hierarchical routing approach, which classifies the signals into different types and levels of signals. During fabrication, the replacement of defective chips with spare chips is accomplished by using two extra conductive layers and patterning the extra layers using a mask that is independent of the defect distribution of a particular wafer.