Memory device repair apparatus, systems, and methods

[0012]The inventor has discovered that it is advantageous to replace one or more selected failing memory cells in a memory device with one or more repair memory cells and to correct data digits read from other failing memory cells in the memory device using a different method. For example, an error correcting code can be used to correct data read from failing memory cells that are not replaced with a repair memory cell. A memory cell fails if a value stored in the memory cell changes over time. A failing memory cell can be identified by writing a value to the memory cell and then reading a value from the memory cell at a later time to determine if the value in the memory cell changed.

[0013]A data digit is an item of data that has one of two or more values. A binary data digit, also called a data bit, has one of two values, a logical one (1) or a logical zero (0). A non-binary data digit has one of three or more values. The following description refers to data digits, and embodiments of