SOLID STATE DRIVE ENCOUNTERING POWER FAILURE AND ASSOCIATED DATA STORAGE METHOD

• US 20140269056A1
• Filed: 09/13/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Solid State Storage Technology Corporation (Kioxia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lite-On It Corporation (Lite-On Technology Corporation)
• Inventors: Yeh, Chih-Wei, Lee, Wei-Han, Chang, Kun-Chang
• Granted Patent: US 9,053,795 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 365/185.03
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/5628 Programming or writing circuits; Data input circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/10 Programming or data input circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/12 Programming voltage switching circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/225 Preventing erasure, programming or reading when power supply voltages are outside the required ranges
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 2211/5641 Multilevel memory having cells with different number of storage levels
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/028 with adaption or trimming of parameters
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/1006 Data managing, e.g. manipulating data before writing or reading out, data bus switches or control circuits therefor

Abstract

A solid state drive and its associated data storage method are provided. The data storage method comprising steps of: receiving data-for-writing from a host, and transforming the data-for-writing to data-for-storage; comparing a supply voltage and a predetermined voltage; and when the supply voltage is lower than the predetermined voltage, proceeding a strong-page programming procedure for storing the data-for-storage to a blank area of a multi-level cell flash memory.

Claims

1. A solid state drive, electrically connected to a host, comprising:

a control unit, for receiving data-for-writing from the host, and transforming the data-for-writing to data-for-storage;

a buffer unit, for storing the data-for-storage;

a multi-level cell flash memory, electrically connected to the control unit; and

a voltage detecting unit, for receiving a supply voltage, and issuing an informing signal when the supply voltage is lower than a predetermined voltage, wherein

the control unit proceeds a strong-page programming procedure for storing the data-for-storage to a blank area of the multi-level cell flash memory after receiving the informing signal.

2. The solid state drive as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit sequentially proceeds the strong-page programming procedure and a weak-page programming procedure for storing the data-for-storage to the multi-level cell flash memory when the informing signal is not received by the control unit.

3. The solid state drive as claimed in claim 1, wherein the multi-level cell flash memory is a double-level cell flash memory, a triple-level cell flash memory, or a quadruple-level cell flash memory.

4. The solid state drive as claimed in claim 1, wherein each memory cell of the blank area consists of two storage states after the strong-page programming procedure.

5. A data storage method for a solid state drive, the data storage method comprising steps of:

receiving data-for-writing from a host, and transforming the data-for-writing to data-for-storage;

comparing a supply voltage and a predetermined voltage; and

when the supply voltage is lower than the predetermined voltage, proceeding a strong-page programming procedure for storing the data-for-storage to a blank area of a multi-level cell flash memory.

6. The data storage method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the data storage method further comprising step of:

when the supply voltage is not lower than the predetermined voltage, sequentially proceeding the strong-page programming procedure and a weak-page programming procedure for storing the data-for-storage to the multi-level cell flash memory.

7. The data storage method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the multi-level cell flash memory is a double-level cell flash memory, a triple-level cell flash memory, or a quadruple-level cell flash memory.

8. The data storage method as claimed in claim 5, wherein each memory cell of the blank area consists of two storage states after the strong-page programming procedure.