Patent ID: 7990171

Claim:
A method of configuring a merged vertical signal path traversing a stacked plurality of devices using a plurality of vertical connection paths, wherein the stacked plurality of devices comprises a plurality of segments, the method comprising: detecting whether each of the plurality of segments is a pass segment or a fail segment, respectively; and merge-connecting at least one pass segment from each one of at least two of the plurality of vertical connection paths responsive to said detecting, to configure the merged vertical signal path, wherein the stacked plurality of devices includes a first device and a second device adjacent to the first device, each of the vertical connection paths includes a vertical subset of the plurality of segments, and the plurality of segments includes a plurality of first layer segments associated with the first device and a plurality of second layer segments associated with the second device, and wherein said detecting comprises performing a connection test on each one of the plurality of first layer segments, determining whether the first device is repairable based on the results of the connection tests performed on the plurality of first layer segments, performing a connection test on each one of the plurality of second layer segments, and determining whether the second device is repairable based on the results of the connection tests performed on the plurality of second layer segments.