Patent ID: 6304498
Filing Date: 2001-10-16
Classification: G11C

Abstract:
A semiconductor memory device, comprising:a control circuit for controlling an operation of said semiconductor memory device;a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells arranged in a matrix of rows and columns,said memory cell array including:a normal memory cell array including a plurality of normal memory cells; anda redundant memory cell array including a plurality of redundant memory cells to replace defective memory cells in said normal memory cell array, said semiconductor memory device further comprising:an address buffer for receiving and latching a row address signal and a column address signal provided from outside said semiconductor memory device in response to a control signal from said control circuit; anda row select circuit for selecting a row of said memory cell array according to said row address signal,said row select circuit including:a row predecoder for receiving the row address signal from said address buffer posterior to the latching of the row address signal, to generate a row predecode signal;a redundancy determination circuit for holding a defective memory cell address in advance, for receiving the row address signal from said address buffer prior to the latching of the row address signal, and for determining whether to perform replacement by said redundant memory cells;a normal row decoder for selecting a memory cell row from said normal memory cell array according to said row predecode signal from said row predecoder when no redundancy replacement is performed; anda redundant row decoder for selecting a memory cell row from said redundant memory cell array when the redundancy replacement is performed, said semiconductor memory device further comprising:a column select circuit for generating a signal for selecting at least one of columns of said memory cell array according to said column address signal; anda data input/output circuit for communicating storage data with the selected said memory cell column.