NONVOLATILE MEMORY DEVICE HAVING WEAR-LEVELING CONTROL AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME

• US 20140040535A1
• Filed: 07/30/2013
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Taek-Sung Kim, Wonseok Lee
• Inventors: LEE, WONSEOK, MOON, YOUNGKUG, KIM, TAEK-SUNG
• Granted Patent: US 9,372,790 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7211 Wear leveling

Abstract

A method is provided for controlling a write operation in a nonvolatile memory device to provide wear leveling, where the nonvolatile memory device includes multiple memory blocks. The method includes reading write indication information with respect to at least a selected memory block of the multiple memory blocks; determining whether a write order of data to be stored in the selected memory block is an ascending order or a descending order, based on the write indication information of the selected memory block; and generating addresses of memory regions in the selected memory block in an ascending order when the write order of the data is determined to be an ascending order, and generating addresses of the memory regions in the selected memory block in a descending order when the write order is determined to be a descending order.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a write operation in a nonvolatile memory device to provide wear leveling, the nonvolatile memory device comprising a plurality of memory blocks, the method comprising:

reading write indication information with respect to at least a selected memory block of the plurality of memory blocks;

determining whether a write order of data to be stored in the selected memory block is an ascending order or a descending order, based on the write indication information of the selected memory block; and

generating addresses of memory regions in the selected memory block in an ascending order when the write order of the data is determined to be an ascending order, and generating addresses of the memory regions in the selected memory block in a descending order when the write order is determined to be a descending order.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the write indication information comprises an erase counting value corresponding to the selected memory block.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the write indication information comprises a power-on counting value corresponding to the selected memory block.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the write indication information comprises a power-off counting value corresponding to the selected memory block.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether the write order is an ascending order or a descending order is determined according to the erase counting value.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the memory regions comprises at least one word line to which a plurality of memory cells are connected.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the write indication information is stored by memory block unit

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sequentially enabling the memory regions one at a time in the ascending order or the descending order for writing the data in the selected memory block.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sequentially enabling the memory regions two at a time in the ascending order or the descending order for writing the data in the selected memory block.

10. A memory controller, comprising:

an address conversion controller configured to convert logical addresses, applied when a write operation is performed on a memory block in a nonvolatile memory device, into physical addresses in an ascending order or a descending order according to write indication information of the memory block; and

an address generator configured to receive the physical addresses and to generate corresponding row select addresses for selecting at least one memory region of a plurality of memory regions in the memory block.

11. The memory controller of claim 10, further comprising:

a register configured to store the write indication information of the memory block.

12. The memory controller of claim 11, further comprising:

a writing mode selector connected to the address conversion controller and configured to select a write mode in response to an external command or autonomously.

13. The memory controller of claim 11, wherein the write indication information of the memory block comprises an erase counting value with respect to the memory block.

14. The memory controller of claim 11, wherein the write indication information of the memory block comprises a power-on counting value or a power-off counting value with respect to the memory block.

15. The memory controller of claim 13, wherein a beginning address of the physical addresses in the ascending order is a lowest order address and a beginning address of the physical addresses in the descending order is the highest order address.

16. The memory controller of claim 13, wherein a beginning address of the physical addresses in the ascending order is an address of a middle memory region and a beginning address of the physical addresses in the descending order is the address of the middle memory region.

17. The memory controller of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of memory regions comprises memory cells connected to at least one word line.

18. A nonvolatile memory device, comprising:

a memory cell array comprising a plurality of memory blocks, each memory block comprising of a plurality of memory regions;

a counting value memory configured to store write indication information with respect to each memory block; and

control logic configured to perform a write operation according to a write order of data to be stored in a selected memory block of the plurality of memory blocks, the write order being one of an ascending order or a descending order of memory regions in the selected memory block determined based on the stored write indication information with respect to the selected memory block.

19. The nonvolatile memory device of claim 18, wherein the write indication information comprises an erase counting value.

20. The nonvolatile memory device of claim 18, wherein the write indication information comprises a power-on counting value or a power-off counting value.