Patent ID: 8736296

Claim:
A method of configuring M vertical signal paths through a stacked plurality of devices using a plurality of N vertical connection paths, wherein ‘M’ and ‘N’ are respective natural numbers and M is less than N, and 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; identifying all vertical connection paths in the plurality of N vertical connection paths comprising only pass segments as L non-merged vertical connection paths and designating the L non-merged vertical connection paths as respective ones of the M vertical signal paths, wherein L is a natural number less than M; and configuring K merged vertical signal paths, where K is a natural number equal to M minus L, and designating the K merged vertical signal paths as respective ones of the M vertical signal paths, wherein configuring each one of the K merged vertical signal paths comprises adaptively connecting at least one pass segment from each one of at least two of the plurality of vertical connection paths, excluding the L non-merged vertical connection paths, the stacked plurality of devices comprises a first device and a second device adjacent to the first device, each of the vertical connection paths comprises a vertical subset of the plurality of segments, the plurality of segments comprises a plurality of first layer segments associated with the first device and a plurality of second layer segments associated with the second device, the designation of the L non-merged vertical connection paths also designates a plurality of H failed vertical connection paths within the plurality of N vertical connection paths, where N is a natural number equal to L plus H and each one of the plurality of H failed vertical connection paths comprises at least one fail segment, and configuring the K merged vertical signal paths further comprises; selecting K possible vertical signal paths traversing the plurality of H failed vertical connection paths and thereafter adaptively connecting at least one pass segment from one of the plurality of H failed vertical connection paths with at least one pass segment from another one of the plurality of H failed vertical connection paths, obtaining a first plurality of possible switch paths of the first device and respective first signal path weight values corresponding to the first plurality of possible signal paths, and obtaining a second plurality of possible switch paths of the second device and respective second signal path weight values corresponding to the second plurality of possible signal paths.