Apparatuses and methods for selective row refreshes

• US 10,134,461 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2015
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Bell, Debra M., McClain, Jeff A., Callaway, Brian P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Anthan
• Application Number:
  US14/707,893
• Publication Number:
  US 20150243339A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,292 Days
• Field of Search: 365222
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/406 Management or control of the refreshing or charge-regeneration cycles
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/1012 Data reordering during input/output, e.g. crossbars, layers of multiplexers, shifting or rotating

Abstract

Apparatuses and methods for selective row refreshes are disclosed herein. An example apparatus may include a refresh control circuit. The refresh control circuit may be configured to receive a target address associated with a target plurality of memory cells from an address bus. The refresh control circuit may further be configured to provide a proximate address to the address bus responsive, at least in part, to determining that a number of refresh operations have occurred. In some examples, a plurality of memory cells associated with the proximate address may be a plurality of memory cells adjacent the target plurality of memory cells.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a memory device configured to respond to individual issuance of an active command to perform an active operation on a corresponding first plurality of memory cells designated by a corresponding external address, the memory device including a refresh control circuit that is configured to provide a first proximate address indicating a second plurality of memory cells proximate the corresponding first plurality of memory cells on which the memory device has performed the active operation in response,

wherein the memory device is configured to respond to a refresh command to perform a refresh operation on the second plurality of memory cells,

wherein the memory device is configured to respond to individual issuance of the refresh command to perform the refresh operation on a corresponding set of a third plurality of memory cells, and the memory device is further configured to perform the refresh operation on the second plurality of memory cells responsive, at least in part, to one issuance of the refresh command with suspending performing the refresh operation on the corresponding set of the third plurality of memory cells, and

wherein, after the refresh operation on the second plurality of memory cells is performed, the memory device is further configured to resume performing refresh operation on the corresponding set of the third plurality of memory cells based on addresses that were provided before the refresh operation on the second plurality of memory cells was performed.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the refresh control circuit is configured to provide a second proximate address indicating a fourth plurality of memory cells proximate the corresponding first plurality of memory cells on which the memory device has performed the active operation in response, at least in part, to one issuance of the active command, each of the first plurality of memory cells is between a corresponding one of the second plurality of memory cells and a corresponding one of the fourth plurality of memory cells, and the memory device is configured to perform consecutively the refresh operations on the second plurality of memory cells and the fourth plurality of memory cells.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the refresh control circuit is configured to provide a second proximate address indicating a fourth plurality of memory cells proximate the corresponding first plurality of memory cells on which the memory device has performed the active operation in response, at least in part, to one issuance of the active command, each of the first plurality of memory cells is between a corresponding one of the second plurality of memory cells and a corresponding one of the fourth plurality of memory cells, and the memory device is configured to perform non-consecutively the refresh operations on the second plurality of memory cells and the fourth plurality of memory cells.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the refresh control circuit is configured to provide a second proximate address indicating a fourth plurality of memory cells proximate the corresponding first plurality of memory cells on which the memory device has performed the active operation in response, at least in part, to a different one issuance of the active command, and the memory device is configured to perform the refresh operations on the second plurality of memory cells and the fourth plurality of memory cells with an intervention of a first period of time.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the first period of time is defined by the number of the refresh operations.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a memory controller configured to provide the external address.