Patent ID: 7053647

Claim:
A method for detecting a potential bridging effect between at least two of a plurality of conducting lines in an integrated circuit, the method comprising: applying a first voltage to a plurality of alternating conducting lines in the integrated circuit; applying a second voltage to a plurality of intervening conducting lines separating the alternating conducting lines, wherein the first voltage and the second voltage creates a voltage difference for inducing the bridging effect; and detecting whether an undesired connection has occurred due to the bridging effect between at least one such alternating conducting line and at least one such intervening conducting line; the detecting further comprising: setting all of the word lines to a low voltage level; applying a high voltage to the alternating word lines to erase a first set of data associated thereto; applying a high voltage to the intervening word lines to erase a second set of data associated thereto; and detecting detecting the bridging; wherein the integrated circuit is a memory chip; wherein the conducting lines are word lines in the memory chip.