Memory block reallocation in a flash memory device

• US 8,072,816 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2009
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Han, Jin-Man, Yip, Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Pho M
• Application Number:
  US12/478,877
• Publication Number:
  US 20090244982A1
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: 365/185.23, 365/185.11, 365/185.17, 365/230.06
• US Class Current: 365/185.23
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/0483 comprising cells having several storage transistors connected in series
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/08 Address circuits; Decoders; Word-line control circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/3418 Disturbance prevention or evaluation; Refreshing of disturbed memory data
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/3427 Circuits or methods to prevent or reduce disturbance of the state of a memory cell when neighbouring cells are read or written
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/76 using address translation or modifications
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/82 for EEPROMs
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 8/08 Word line control circuits, e.g. drivers, boosters, pull-up circuits, pull-down circuits, precharging circuits, for word lines
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A non-volatile memory device has the pages of a certain memory block reallocated to other blocks in order to increase decrease disturb and increase reliability. Each of the reallocation blocks that contain the reallocated pages from the desired memory block are coupled to a wordline driver. These wordline drivers have a subset of the global wordlines as inputs. The desired wordline driver is selected by an appropriate select signal from a block decoder and an indication on an appropriate global wordline. This causes the wordline driver to generate a local wordline to the desired block with the reallocated page to be accessed.

Claims

1. A memory device comprising:

a global wordline driver;

n global wordlines coupled to the global wordline driver; and

m local wordline drivers each coupled to a respective one of m physical memory blocks and having n global wordline inputs, wherein at least one of the n global wordline inputs of at least two of the m local wordline drivers are not coupled to at least one of the n global wordlines.

2. The memory device of claim 1 wherein the at least two of the m local wordline drivers is coupled to different pages of memory block 0.

3. The memory device of claim 1 wherein a first one of the m physical memory blocks is coupled to the at least two local wordline drivers comprises a total of x+y pages, wherein only the x pages of the first one of the physical memory blocks can be accessed during operation and wherein a second one of the physical memory blocks coupled to the at least two local wordline drivers comprises a total of x+y pages, wherein only the y pages of the second one of the physical memory blocks can be accessed.

4. The memory device of claim 3 wherein both the x pages and the y pages of the first and second ones of the first physical memory blocks are erased during an erase operation.

5. The memory device of claim 3 wherein the x pages are contiguous to one another in each of the physical memory blocks and the y pages are contiguous to one another in each of the physical memory blocks.

6. The memory device of claim 3 wherein the x pages of the first one of the physical memory blocks are in a same respective physical location within the first one of the physical memory blocks as the y pages of the second one of the physical memory blocks are within the second one of the physical memory blocks.

7. The memory device of claim 1 wherein at least one of the at least two of the m local wordline drivers is coupled to a physical memory block that is otherwise configured to replace a defective one of the other physical memory blocks.

8. The memory device of claim 1 and further comprising m block decoders each coupled to a respective one of the m local wordline drivers.

9. The memory device of claim 1 wherein the global wordline inputs that are not coupled to the at least one of the n global wordlines are coupled to a supply voltage.

10. The memory device of claim 3 wherein the x pages are odd pages and the y pages are even pages.

11. The memory device of claim 1 wherein a first one of the physical memory blocks coupled to the at least two local wordline drivers comprises x pages and wherein a second one of the physical memory blocks coupled to the at least two local wordline drivers comprises y pages.

12. A memory device comprising:

a global wordline driver;

a plurality of global wordlines coupled to the global wordline driver;

a first plurality of local wordline drivers each coupled to a respective one of a first plurality of physical memory blocks; and

a second plurality of local wordline drivers each coupled to a respective one of a second plurality of physical memory blocks, wherein each of the first plurality of local wordline drivers are coupled to the plurality of global wordlines and wherein the second plurality of local wordline drivers are coupled to the plurality of global wordlines such that the plurality of global wordlines is divided between the second plurality of local wordline drivers.

13. The memory device of claim 12 and further comprising a different block decoder coupled to each local wordline driver wherein each block decoder is configured to receive memory block addresses.

14. The memory device of claim 13 wherein each block decoder is configured to generate a select signal when a received address is within an address range assigned to a particular block decoder.

15. The memory device of claim 13 wherein each block decoder is configured to enable its respective local wordline driver in response to a received memory address.

16. The memory device of claim 15 wherein each of the local wordline drivers allow their respective plurality of global wordlines to pass through in response to the block decoder.

17. A memory device comprising:

a global wordline driver;

a plurality of local wordline drivers coupled to the global wordline driver by a plurality of global wordlines;

a plurality of memory blocks, each memory block coupled to a different one of the plurality of local wordline drivers;

a plurality of block decoders, each block decoder coupled to a different one of the plurality of local wordline drivers, each block decoder configured to decode a received block address and enable its respective local wordline driver,

wherein a first memory block of the plurality of memory blocks is divided between a first and a second local wordline driver.

18. The memory device of claim 17 wherein the first memory block is equally divided between the first and the second local wordline drivers.

19. The memory device of claim 18 wherein a subset of the plurality of global wordlines is enabled to pass through one of the first or the second local wordline drivers in response to a signal from the respective block decoder coupled to the first or the second local wordline driver.

20. The memory device of claim 17 wherein the first memory block is divided into a plurality of physical memory blocks wherein each of the plurality of physical memory blocks is coupled to a different one of the plurality of local wordline drivers and each of the plurality of local wordline drivers is coupled to a subset of the plurality of global wordlines.