Semiconductor memory device including a controller for controlling power and electronic device including the semiconductor memory device

• US 10,664,333 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2018
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Cha, Gyu-Hwan
• Primary Examiner(s): Ojha, Ajay
• Application Number:
  US16/139,721
• Publication Number:
  US 20190237124A1
• Time in Patent Office: 610 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/4072 Circuits for initialization, powering up or down, clearing memory or presetting
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/4074 Power supply or voltage generation circuits, e.g. bias voltage generators, substrate voltage generators, back-up power, power control circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 2207/2227 Standby or low power modes
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 5/14 Power supply arrangements , e.g. power down, chip selection or deselection, layout of wirings or power grids, or multiple supply levels
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 5/147 Voltage reference generators, voltage or current regulators; Internally lowered supply levels; Compensation for voltage drops G11C5/141 takes precedence

Abstract

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory including a plurality of units, and a controller. Under control of the controller, a power for an operation of the memory is independently supplied to each of the plurality of units or is independently blocked with respect to each of the plurality of units. Each of the plurality of units may be one of a package, die, or chip. A supply of the power to at least a part of the plurality of units, to which the power is supplied, may be blocked under control of the controller. Accordingly, unnecessary power consumption may be prevented. Furthermore, power may be additionally supplied to at least a part of the plurality of units to which the power is not supplied, under control of the controller, and these units may be initialized.

Claims

1. A semiconductor memory device comprising:

a memory including a plurality of units; and

a controller,

wherein, under control of the controller, a power for an operation of the memory is independently supplied to each of the plurality of units or is independently blocked with respect to each of the plurality of units,

wherein the power is additionally supplied to at least a part of the plurality of units to which the power is not supplied, under control of the controller, and

wherein the controller performs initialization on the at least a part of the plurality of units.

2. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1, wherein the memory is a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and

wherein each of the plurality of units is one of a DRAM package, a DRAM die, or a DRAM chip.

3. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1, further comprising:

a power gating circuit configured to pass or block the power to each of the plurality of units,

wherein the controller performs an interface operation for controlling the power gating circuit.

4. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of power gating elements corresponding to the plurality of units, respectively,

wherein the plurality of power gating elements include on/off switches for passing or blocking the power to the plurality of units.

5. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of power gating elements corresponding to the plurality of units, respectively,

wherein the plurality of power gating elements include transistors for controlling a current flowing to the plurality of units.

6. The semiconductor memory device of claim 4, wherein the controller controls an on/off state of each of the plurality of power gating elements.

7. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1, wherein the memory further includes:

a register configured to record information about whether to block the power with respect to each of the plurality of units, and

wherein the controller manages the information of the register.

8. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1, wherein a supply of the power to at least a part of the plurality of units, to which the power is supplied, is blocked under control of the controller.

9. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1, wherein the initialization includes a training operation on the at least a part of the plurality of units, and

wherein the training operation is performed using a data pattern recorded in a register of the controller.

10. An electronic device comprising:

a semiconductor memory device;

a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) including a plurality of transistors connected to the semiconductor memory device via a plurality of power lines and configured to provide power to the semiconductor memory device through the plurality of power lines,

wherein the semiconductor memory device includes;

a memory including a package including a plurality of dies, wherein the plurality of dies are respectively connected to the plurality of transistors via the plurality of power lines; and

a controller, and

wherein the controller generates a control signal to independently control the plurality of transistors of the PMIC, and

wherein each of the plurality of transistors passes or blocks a current flowing to a corresponding one of the plurality of dies,

wherein power is additionally supplied to at least apart of the plurality of dies to which the current is not blocked, under control of the controller, and

wherein the controller performs initialization on the at least part of the plurality of dies.

11. An electronic device comprising:

a host; and

a semiconductor memory device,

wherein the semiconductor memory device includes;

a memory including a plurality of units; and

a controller,

wherein, under control of the controller, a power for an operation of the memory is independently supplied to each of the plurality of units or is independently blocked with respect to each of the plurality of units,

wherein the host is an application processor,

wherein the semiconductor memory device is configured to load an application to be executed in the host or to temporarily store data needed to drive the application, and

wherein, when a capacity of an area in the memory used to drive the application is smaller than a capacity of an area in the memory to which the power is supplied, a supply of the power to at least an unused part of the plurality of units of the area in the memory to which the power is supplied is blocked under control of the controller.

12. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the memory is a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and

wherein each of the plurality of units is one of a DRAM package, a DRAM die, or a DRAM chip.

13. The electronic device of claim 11, further comprising:

a power gating circuit configured to pass or block the power to each of the plurality of units,

wherein the controller performs an interface operation for controlling the power gating circuit.

14. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the power gating module circuit includes:

a plurality of power gating elements corresponding to the plurality of units, respectively, and

wherein each of the plurality of power gating elements includes an on/off switch for passing or blocking the power.

15. The electronic device of claim 13, further comprising:

a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) configured to control a power output from a power device so as to be transmitted to the memory,

wherein the power gating circuit is included in the PMIC.

16. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein, when a capacity of the area in the memory to which the power is supplied is smaller than a capacity of the area in the memory used to drive the application, the power is additionally supplied to at least a part of the plurality of units, to which the power is not supplied, under control of the controller.

17. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the controller performs initialization on the at least a part of the plurality of units to which the power is additionally supplied, and

wherein the initialization includes a training operation that is performed using a data pattern recorded in a register of the controller.