• ETRI Journal
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.904-913
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• 2011

Three-dimensional (3D) memories using through-silicon vias (TSVs) as vertical buses across memory layers will likely be the first commercial application of 3D integrated circuit technology. The memory dies to stack together in a 3D memory are selected by a die-selection method. The conventional die-selection methods do not result in a high-enough yields of 3D memories because 3D memories are typically composed of known-good-dies (KGDs), which are repaired using self-contained redundancies. In 3D memory, redundancy sharing between neighboring vertical memory dies using TSVs is an effective strategy for yield enhancement. With the redundancy sharing strategy, a known-bad-die (KBD) possibly becomes a KGD after bonding. In this paper, we propose a novel die-selection method using KBDs as well as KGDs for yield enhancement in 3D memory. The proposed die-selection method uses three search-space conditions, which can reduce the search space for selecting memory dies to manufacture 3D memories. Simulation results show that the proposed die-selection method can significantly improve the yield of 3D memories in various fault distributions.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.388-398
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• 2012

Three-dimensional (3D) memories using through-silicon vias (TSVs) will likely be the first commercial applications of 3D integrated circuit technology. A 3D memory yield can be enhanced by vertical redundancy sharing strategies. The methods used to select memory dies to form 3D memories have a great effect on the 3D memory yield. Since previous die-selection methods share redundancies only between neighboring memory dies, the opportunity to achieve significant yield enhancement is limited. In this paper, a novel die-selection method is proposed for multilayer 3D memories that shares redundancies among all of the memory dies by using additional TSVs. The proposed method uses three selection conditions to form a good multi-layer 3D memory. Furthermore, the proposed method considers memory fault characteristics, newly detected faults after bonding, and multiple memory blocks in each memory die. Simulation results show that the proposed method can significantly improve the multilayer 3D memory yield in a variety of situations. The TSV overhead for the proposed method is almost the same as that for the previous methods.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.48 no.7
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• pp.30-36
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• 2011

Three-dimensional (3D) memories using through-silicon vias (TSVs) as vertical bus across memory layers are implemented by many semiconductor companies. 3D memories are composed of known-good-dies (KGDs). If additional faults are arisen during bonding, they should be repaired. In order to enhance the yield of 3D memories with inter-die redundancies, a die-matching method is needed to effectively stack memory dies in a 3D memory. In this paper, a new die-matching method is proposed for 3D memory yield enhancement with inter-die redundancies considering additional faults arisen during bonding. Three boundary-limited conditions are used in the proposed die-matching method; they set bounds to the search spaces for selecting memory dies to manufacture a 3D memory. Simulation results show that the proposed die-matching method can greatly enhance the 3D memory yield.