Patent ID: 6865103
Filing Date: 2005-03-08
Classification: G11C

Abstract:
1. A thin film magnetic memory device for selecting an address according to an address signal including first and second addresses, comprising: a plurality of normal memory cells, and a plurality of spare memory cells for replacing a defective memory cell in said plurality of normal memory cells, said normal memory cells and said spare memory cells being arranged in a matrix, wherein each normal memory cell and each spare memory cell include a magneto-resistance element having its electric resistance varying according to a magnetization direction that is rewritable in response to application of both a first prescribed magnetic field along a hard axis and a second prescribed magnetic field along an easy axis, said thin film magnetic memory device further comprising: a redundant control circuit for comparing said address signal with a fault address designating said defective memory cell and conducting redundant determination to determine whether said defective memory cell is selected or not based on the comparison result; a selection circuit for conducting row selection for each of said plurality of normal memory cells and said plurality of spare memory cells according to said first address regardless of said redundant determination in data write operation; a plurality of write selection lines selectively activated according to said row selection to pass a first data write current therethrough in order to apply said first prescribed magnetic field to a normal memory cell group and a spare memory cell group of the selected row; a plurality of data lines arranged respectively corresponding to the normal memory cell columns; a plurality of spare data lines arranged respectively corresponding to the spare memory cell columns; and a data input/output (I/O) circuit for controlling data input/output to/from said plurality of normal memory cells and said plurality of spare memory cells according to said redundant determination, wherein in said data write operation, said data I/O circuit supplies a second data write current to either data lines corresponding to said second address, or data lines and a spare data line corresponding to said second address according to said redundant determination, said second data write current being a current for generating said second prescribed magnetic field.