SEMICONDUCTOR MEMORY DEVICE, CONTROLLER, AND MEMORY SYSTEM

• US 20200133768A1
• Filed: 04/01/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: LEE, Myung Kyu, KONG, Jun Jin, LEE, Ki Jun, CHO, Sung Hye, KIM, Dae Hyun, CHU, Yong Gyu
• Granted Patent: US 10,824,507 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1012 using codes or arrangements adapted for a specific type of error G06F11/1048 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1068 in sector programmable memories, e.g. flash disk G06F11/1072 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 2029/0411 Online error correction
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/52 Protection of memory contents; Detection of errors in memory contents
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/2906 using block codes H03M13/2957 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/3707 Adaptive decoding and hybrid decoding, e.g. decoding methods or techniques providing more than one decoding algorithm for one code

Abstract

Disclosed are a semiconductor memory device, a controller, and a memory system. The semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells, and an error correcting code (ECC) decoder configured to receive first data and a parity output from selected memory cells of the memory cell array. The ECC decoder generates a syndrome based on the first data and the parity, generates a decoding status flag (DSF) indicating a type of an error of the first data by the syndrome, and outputs the second data and the DSF to an external device outside of the semiconductor memory device when a read operation of the semiconductor memory device is performed.

Claims

1. A semiconductor memory device comprising:

a row decoder configured to decode a row address to generate a word line selection signal;

a column decoder configured to decode a column address to generate a column selection signal;

a memory cell array comprising a plurality of memory cells, one or more memory cells selected in response to the word line selection signal and the column selection signal; and

an error correcting code (ECC) decoder configured to receive first data and a parity output from the selected memory cells of the memory cell array and generate a syndrome based on the first data and the parity, and in response to a read operation of the semiconductor memory device being performed, to generate second data and a decoding status flag (DSF) indicating a type of an error of the first data by the syndrome and to output the second data and the DSF to an external device outside of the semiconductor memory device,

wherein a number of bits of the first data is the same as a number of bits of the second data.

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

an ECC encoder configured to receive third data from the external device, to generate the parity, and to output fourth data and the parity to the selected memory cells when a write operation of the semiconductor memory device is performed,

wherein a number of bits of the third data is the same as a number of bits of the fourth data.

3. The semiconductor memory device of claim 2, wherein the ECC encoder includes a parity generator configured to perform an exclusive OR (XOR) operation on each of row vectors of a first H matrix and on the third data and then perform a modulo 2 operation thereon to generate the parity, and

wherein codes of column vectors of the first H matrix have different codes including “

0” and

“

1,”

that are not all “

0,” and

a minimum Hamming distance between the codes of the first H matrix is three.

4. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1, wherein the ECC decoder is configured to:

output the first data as the second data when the syndrome indicates a non-error, correct a corresponding bit of the first data and the parity and then output the corrected data as the second data when the syndrome indicates a correctable error, and

generate the DSF having a first state when the syndrome indicates the non-error or the correctable error and a second state when the syndrome indicates an uncorrectable error.

5. The semiconductor memory device of claim 4, wherein the second data and the DSF are output to the outside of the semiconductor memory device in series or in parallel when the read operation is performed.

6. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1, wherein the ECC decoder includes:

a syndrome generator configured to perform an XOR operation on each of row vectors of a second H matrix, and the first data and the parity and then perform a modulo 2 operation thereon to generate a predetermined number of bits of syndrome;

an error detector configured to detect a non-error, a correctable error, or an uncorrectable error using the syndrome;

an error position detector configured to detect a position of the row vector of the second H matrix in which the syndrome is present to generate error position information when the correctable error is detected;

an error corrector configured to correct errors of the first data and the parity on the basis of the error position information when the correctable error is detected; and

a DSF generator configured to generate the DSF of a first state when the non-error or the correctable error is detected and generate the DSF of a second state when the uncorrectable error is detected.

7. The semiconductor memory device of claim 6, wherein codes of column vectors of the second H matrix have different codes including “

0” and

“

1,”

that are not all “

0,” and

a minimum Hamming distance between the codes of the second H matrix is three.

8. A controller comprising:

an error correcting code (ECC) decoder configured to;

perform an ECC decoding operation selected from among a plurality of ECC decoding operations on first data applied from an external device outside of the controller in response to a decoding status flag (DSF) applied from the external device and indicating a type of an error of the first data, and

generate second data and an error signal by performing the selected ECC decoding operation,

wherein the first data and the DSF are provided from an outside of the controller, and

wherein a number of bits of the first data is the same as a number of bits of the second data.

9. The controller of claim 8, wherein the ECC decoder comprises:

a first ECC decoding unit configured to perform a first ECC decoding operation in response to the DSF of a first state; and

a second ECC decoding unit configured to perform a second ECC decoding operation in response to the DSF of a second state,

wherein the first ECC decoding operation is an error detection operation, and

wherein the second ECC decoding operation is an error correction and detection operation.

10. The controller of claim 9, wherein the first ECC decoding unit is configured to receive the first data, to generate a first predetermined number of bits of first syndrome, and detect that the first syndrome indicates a non-error or a 3-bit or less error,

wherein the second ECC decoding unit is configured to receive the first data, to generate the first predetermined number of bits of second syndrome, and to detect that the second syndrome indicates a non-error or a 2-bit or less error,

wherein, when the second syndrome indicates the non-error, the second ECC decoding unit transmits data excluding a parity with a predetermined number of bits included in the first data, and

wherein, when the second syndrome indicates the 2-bit or less error, the second ECC decoding unit detects an error position of the first data to generate error position information using the second syndrome, corrects an error of the first data using the error position information, and then transmits corrected data excluding the parity.

11. The controller of claim 10, wherein the first ECC decoding unit comprises:

a first syndrome generator configured to perform an exclusive OR (XOR) operation on each of row vectors of a first H matrix and the first data and then perform a modulo 2 operation thereon to generate the first syndrome; and

a first error detector configured to detect the non-error or the 3-bit or less error using the first syndrome.

12. The controller of claim 11, wherein the second ECC decoding unit comprises:

a second syndrome generator configured to perform an XOR operation on each of row vectors of a second H matrix and the first data and then perform a modulo 2 operation thereon to generate the first predetermined number of bits of second syndrome;

a second error detector configured to detect the non-error or the 2-bit or less error using the second syndrome;

an error position detector configured to detect a position of the row vector of the second H matrix in which the second syndrome is present to generate error position information when the 2-bit or less error is detected; and

an error corrector configured to correct an error of the first data on the basis of the error position information when the 2-bit or less error is detected.

13. The controller of claim 12, wherein codes of column vectors of the first H matrix and the second H matrix have different codes including “

0” and

“

1,”

that are not all “

0,” and

a minimum Hamming distance between the codes of the first H matrix and a minimum Hamming distance between the codes of the second H matrix are four.

14. The controller of claim 8, wherein the ECC decoder comprises:

a syndrome generator configured to perform an exclusive OR (XOR) operation on each of row vectors of an H matrix and the first data and then perform a modulo 2 operation thereon to generate a predetermined number of bits of syndrome;

an error detector configured to detect a non-error or a 3-bit or less error using the syndrome;

an error position detector configured to detect a position of the row vector of the H matrix in which the syndrome is present to generate error position information when the 3-bit or less error is detected in response to the DSF; and

an error corrector configured to correct an error of the first data on the basis of the error position information when the 3-bit or less error is detected in response to the DSF.

15. The controller of claim 8, further comprising:

a data processing unit configured to perform a data processing operation by receiving the second data and the error signal.

16. A memory system comprising:

a semiconductor memory device comprising;

a row decoder configured to decode a row address to generate a word line selection signal;

a column decoder configured to decode a column address to generate a column selection signal;

a memory cell array comprising a plurality of memory cells, one or more memory cells are selected in response to the word line selection signal and the column selection signal; and

a first error correcting code (ECC) decoder configured to;

perform a first ECC decoding operation by receiving first data and a parity output from selected memory cells of the memory cell array,

generate a syndrome based on the first data and the parity,

generate second data by performing the first ECC decoding operation, and

generate a decoding status flag (DSF) indicating a type of an error of the first data by the syndrome when a read operation of the semiconductor memory device is performed; and

a controller configured to control the semiconductor memory device, the controller comprising;

a second ECC decoder configured to perform an ECC decoding operation selected from among a plurality of ECC decoding operations on the second data applied from the semiconductor memory device in response to the DSF applied from the semiconductor memory device.

17. The memory system of claim 16, wherein the first ECC decoder outputs the first data as the second data when the syndrome indicates a non-error,

when the syndrome indicates a correctable error, corrects a corresponding bit of the first data and the parity and then outputs the corrected data, and

generates the DSF having a first state when the syndrome indicates the non-error or the correctable error and a second state when the syndrome indicates an uncorrectable error.

18. The memory system of claim 17, wherein the semiconductor memory device outputs the second data and the DSF to the controller in series or in parallel when the read operation is performed.

19. The memory system of claim 16, wherein the second ECC decoder comprises:

a first ECC decoding unit configured to perform a second ECC decoding operation in response to the DSF of a first state; and

a second ECC decoding unit configured to perform a third ECC decoding operation in response to the DSF of a second state,

wherein the second ECC decoding operation is an error detection operation, and

the third ECC decoding operation is an error correction and detection operation.

20. The memory system of claim 18, wherein the second ECC decoder comprises:

a syndrome generator configured to perform an exclusive OR (XOR) operation on each of row vectors of an H matrix and the second data and then perform a modulo 2 operation thereon to generate a predetermined number of bits of syndrome;

an error detector configured to detect the non-error or a 3-bit or less error using the syndrome;

an error position detector configured to detect a position of the row vector of the H matrix in which the syndrome is present to generate error position information when a 3-bit or less error is detected in response to the DSF; and

an error corrector configured to correct an error of the second data on the basis of the error position information in response to the DSF when the 3-bit or less error is detected, wherein codes of column vectors of the H matrix have different codes including “

0” and

“

1,”

that are not all “

0,” and

a minimum Hamming distance between the codes of the H matrix is three.