Patent ID: 7383087

Claim:
A system comprising: an implantable medical device comprising: a memory; and a controller circuit, coupled to the memory, wherein the controller circuit is operable to enter a memory scrubbing mode when the controller circuit determines the implantable device is in a high-energy radiation environment by: monitoring a number of errors encountered while accessing memory locations in a normal operation mode, the monitoring including error checking all memory locations of the memory using a first rate of error checking per time period during the normal operation mode; using the monitored number of errors to determine a rate of memory errors per time period; comparing the rate of memory errors per time period to a programmable threshold rate of memory errors per time period; and when the rate of memory errors per time period exceeds the programmable threshold error rate of memory errors per time period, then entering the memory scrubbing mode; and wherein the memory scrubbing mode has an increased rate of error checking all memory locations of the memory per time period to detect and correct single bit errors in the memory.