STORAGE DEVICE AND RELIABILITY VERIFICATION METHOD

• US 20160104539A1
• Filed: 06/05/2015
• Published: 04/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Sangkwon Moon, Tae-Hoon Kim
• Inventors: KIM, KYUNGRYUN, KIM, TAEHOON, MOON, SANGKWON
• Granted Patent: US 9,406,390 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/26 Sensing or reading circuits; Data output circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/28 using differential sensing or reference cells, e.g. dummy cells
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/32 Timing circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/3495 Circuits or methods to detect or delay wearout of nonvolatile EPROM or EEPROM memory devices, e.g. by counting numbers of erase or reprogram cycles, by using multiple memory areas serially or cyclically

Abstract

A method controlling the execution of a reliability verification operation in a storage device including a nonvolatile memory device includes; determining whether a read count for a designated unit within the nonvolatile memory device exceeds a count value limit, and upon determining that the read count exceeds the count value limit, executing the reliability verification operation directed to the designated unit, wherein the count value limit is based on at least one of read count information, page bitmap information and environment information stored in the storage device.

Claims

1. A method controlling the execution of a reliability verification operation in a storage device including a nonvolatile memory device and a memory controller, the method comprising:

determining whether a read count for a designated unit within the nonvolatile memory device exceeds a count value limit; and

upon determining that the read count exceeds the count value limit, executing the reliability verification operation directed to the designated unit,

wherein the count value limit is based on at least one of read count information, page bitmap information and environment information stored in the storage device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the designated unit is one of a super block, a block, a sub-block, multiple pages, a page, a selected word line, and an open word line of the nonvolatile memory device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the read count indicates at least one of;

a number of read operations executed in response to externally generated read request, and read operations executed in response to internally generated request.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein executing the reliability verification operation includes executing at least one dummy read operation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the designated unit is a selected word line, and the least one dummy read operation is directed to at least one memory cell connected to a word line adjacent to the selected word line.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the designated unit is a selected word line and the at least one dummy read operation is directed to at least one memory cell connected to an open word line disposed in an upper portion of the selected word line.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the environment information is organized in relation to different areas of the nonvolatile memory device, and

the count value limits varies according to an area among the different areas including the designated unit.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the environment information includes a number of program/erase (P/E) cycles for each block among a plurality of blocks of the nonvolatile memory device, and

the count value limit varies according to the block among the plurality of blocks including the designated unit.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the designated unit is a page, and the method further comprises:

generating a page bitmap table including page bitmap information indicating for each page among a plurality of pages of the nonvolatile memory whether data stored by the page is valid or invalid; and

selectively omitting a reliability verification operation directed to a page storing invalid data by referencing the page bitmap table.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the designated unit is a selected word line, and the method further comprises:

generating a page bitmap table including page bitmap information indicating for memory cells connected to each one of a plurality of word lines whether the data stored by the memory cells is valid or invalid; and

selectively omitting a reliability verification operation directed to a selected word line when data stored in memory cells connected to a word line adjacent to the selected word line is invalid by referencing the page bitmap table.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the designated unit is a selected word line, and the method further comprises:

generating a page bitmap table including page bitmap information indicating for memory cells connected to each one of a plurality of word lines whether the data stored by the memory cells is valid or invalid; and

selectively omitting a reliability verification operation directed to a selected word line if a number of open word lines is less than a predetermined value by referencing the page bitmap table.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a read reclaim operation is executed based on a result of executing the reliability verification operation.

13. A method of operating a storage device including a nonvolatile memory device and a memory controller controlling operation of the nonvolatile memory device, the method comprising:

maintaining in the nonvolatile memory device a read count table listing a number of read requests directed to each one of a plurality of designated units within the nonvolatile memory device;

upon receiving a read request direct to memory cells of a selected word line, determining whether to execute a dummy read operation in response to a read count stored in the read count table and state information associated with an unselected word line;

executing the dummy read operation directed to either memory cells connected to an open word line, or memory cells connected to a word line adjacent to the selected word line;

determining whether to execute a read reclaim operation based on a result of executing the dummy read operation; and

executing the read reclaim operation directed to a memory block including the memory cells connected to the selected word line.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the state information associated with the unselected word line is managed according to a page bitmap table.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining of whether to execute the dummy read operation comprises referencing environmental information stored in the memory controller, wherein the environmental information includes at least one of program/erase cycle information, a program count, an erase count, a number of errors occurred during a read operation, threshold voltage shift information, wear level information, degradation information, data input/output time information, temperature information, memory cell location information, and structure information.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining of whether to execute the read reclaim operation comprises referencing a number of errors occurring during the dummy read operation.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

resetting a read count in the read count table for the memory block following execution of the read reclaim operation.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the read reclaim operation is executed by reprogramming the memory block.

19. A storage device comprising:

a nonvolatile memory device including a plurality of memory blocks; and

a memory controller configured to control the nonvolatile memory device,

wherein in response to a read request identifying a memory block among the plurality of memory blocks, the memory controller is configured to execute a reliability verification operation directed to the memory block in response to one of a read count and environmental information, and the read count and state information associated with an unselected word line.

20. The storage device of claim 19, wherein the nonvolatile memory device maintains at least one of a read count table storing the read count, and a page bitmap table storing the state information associated with the unselected word line.

21. The storage device of claim 20, wherein upon power up of the storage device, the at least one of the read count table and the page bitmap table is stored in an internal buffer memory of the memory controller.

22. The storage device of claim 19, wherein the memory controller further comprises a random interval neighbor check management unit that controls execution of the reliability verification operation.

23. The storage device of claim 22, wherein the random interval neighbor check management unit is responsive to an externally provided activation request.