Using Single Error Correction Codes to Protect

Against Isolated Defects and Soft Errors

To begin with Error Control Coding, first we should owe to the pioneering work of
Claude Shannon on communication over noisy transmission channels. According to Shannon
reliable communication can be achieved if one chooses proper encoding and decoding techniques
and also the signaling rate of the system should be less than the channel capacity.
Sometimes, during transmission of symbols, noise will interact with the transmitted symbols
causing errors. In order to overcome this hurdle, error controlling strategies are introduced.
Usually the data will be transmitted in the binary format. This binary format sequence (words)
will be modularized into information blocks of predetermined length. When this is sent over a
transmission channel, due to channel noise the received data may be different from the original
data. The receiver will not know whether there is an error or not. So first we need to check
whether there is an error and if so necessary measures should be taken to correct the errors.
Power consumption can be reduced by first checking if the word has errors and then perform the
rest of the decoding only when there are errors. This greatly reduces the average power
consumption as most words will have no errors.
Various techniques have been proposed to overcome the defects in memory; most of them are on
replacing defectives with redundant ones. These techniques can be applied starting from
manufacturing process, testing phase, deployment phase to normal operation in the field. The
method of using redundant rows or columns to replace the defective rows or columns, called 1-D
redundancy, during test phase is one of the most popular methods as it is very simple and no
complex procedure need to be followed. But its efficiency will be reduced when a defective
row/column is having multiple defective cells, which cannot be fixed. A slight improvement to
this method is 2-D redundancy wherein both rows and columns can be used to correct multiple
defects arising in the same row or column of the array.
Sometimes, repair capability of the approaches exceeds the no. of defective/faulty cells in the
array of a memory element. In such a scenario instead of discarding the device, we still can use it

as a degraded version of the memory i.e. when all the defective cells are on one half of the array
we can use the other half by considering it as a reduced memory. But this is not feasible always
as we cant expect the error to occur only on one side of the array element. Another approach for
dealing with multiple cell upsets is the use of interleaving in the physical arrangement of the
memory cells so that the cells that belong to the same logical word or separated. Another
mechanism, which classifies the detected errors as either permanent or temporary is available.
For handling permanent errors redundancy is used and for temporary errors (soft errors) error
correcting codes are used. Redundancy is best suited when the number of defects is as large as an
entire column/row. But for isolated error this creates lot of waste bits.
Here, the authors have proposed to use the SEC-DED and interleaving to deal with soft errors
and also isolated defects.
In this paper, the authors are focusing on Single Error Correction-Double Error Detection (SECDED) codes. Also, a technique is proposed to enhance the reliability. Reliability is a key factor
in any circuit. Reliability issues may appear as corrosion within the device, temperature
variations and varying operating conditions, age induced permanent failures, soft errors, and
errors during manufacturing of the device.
Various techniques have been used to deal with defects and soft errors. A soft error is a type of
error where the signal or datum is wrong but it affects only the data being processed, not the
systems hardware. Usually errors arise due to a broken component or due to mistake in design
or construction. Soft errors in memory design are becoming increasingly important
considerations in system design. Error correction codes are used for soft errors and repair
techniques for defects. Currently proposals are being made to use error correction codes to take
care of defects.
In this paper, the authors have used one of such techniques to examine methodically and in detail
for the purposes of interpreting the impact on reliability of such approaches that use error
correction codes that can deal with soft errors to resolve defects at the cost of reduced ability to
correct soft errors.
As the technology improves, the major factor in any circuits is the reliability factor which may
be due to numerous reasons. Due to the higher level of integration, the reliability issues cause

severe problems in memory devices. In this paper, an effective technique to use ECC to deal with
isolated defects and soft errors on memory chips is presented. This technique not only deals with
soft errors but also with isolated stuck-at defects. Stuck-at defects are the faults where memory
cells will permanently store the same value regardless of the value what is supposed to be saved.
The proposed technique is as follows. When a word is read and an error is detected, it is
classified as single error or uncorrectable error (double bit error). For the detected single error
suitable single error correction-double error detection (SEC-DED) technique is used to do the
necessary correction. Suppose if it is an uncorrectable error, once again we check for the defects
in the word. Next we store the contents of the word in a register and the word is fed with allzeros and all-ones. This procedure helps us to identify the stuck-at defect in the given word and
if there is any defect, the location of the defect is identified and at that same location in the
register, the corresponding bit in the register is inverted, and modified word is decoded again.
Suppose if no defect is detected, a failure is triggered as the procedure cannot correct the error
and hence it is in fact uncorrectable error. Soft errors and defects in memory can be dealt easily
with this proposed technique.
This technique has some limitations also. The proposed approach will fail when two soft errors
affect a word that contains a defect. The efficiency of SED-DED with isolated stuck-at defects
will not be effective unless the defect rate is small.
An analysis is done on the reliability of a memory on which the SEC-DED is used to deal with
soft errors and isolated stuck at failures. With the help of Mean Number of Events to Failure
(METF) and Mean Time To Failure (MTTF), the analysis is done. This technique can be
efficiently used when defect rates are small and large MTTF is used. This technique can be
combined with other repairing techniques such that isolated stuck at defects, row and/or column
failures, defects on multiple bits can be repaired/handled by SEC-DED.