IP Library › Granted Patent US 7,903,473
Granted Patent B2
US 7,903,473 · App. 12/508,319 · Granted Mar 8, 2011

Semiconductor device and control method of the same

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 7,903,473
App. No.
12/508,319
Filed
Jul 23, 2009
Granted
Mar 8, 2011
Kind
B2
Examiner
YANG, HAN
Art Unit
2824
USPC
365/230.03
Abstract

A semiconductor device includes: a first sector ( 12 ) having data that are all to be erased and having flash memory cells; a second sector ( 14 ) having data that are all to be retained and having flash memory cells; a sector select circuit ( 16 ) selecting a pair of sectors from among sectors during erasing the data in the first sector, said pair of sectors being the first sector and the second sector; and an SRAM array (storage) ( 30 ) retaining the data of the second sector. The present invention can provide a semiconductor device in which a reduced number of sector select circuits is used so that the area of memory cell array can be reduced and provide a method of controlling the semiconductor device.

Claims (31)

1. A method of controlling a semiconductor device comprising:

selecting a first portion of memory, wherein said first portion of memory comprises a first sub-portion of memory and a second sub-portion of memory;

writing data of said second sub-portion of memory into a storage;

erasing data of said first sub-portion of memory and said second sub-portion of memory, wherein said writing data of said second sub-portion of memory is performed prior to said erasing; and

writing data in said storage to said second sub-portion of memory.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said writing of data is performed upon said selection of said first portion of memory.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a storage capacity of said first sub-portion of memory is substantially the same as that of the second sub-portion of memory.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a storage capacity of said first sub-portion of memory and said second sub-portion of memory is substantially the same as that of said storage.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said first portion of memory is a pair of sectors.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein said first sub-portion of memory is a sector and said second sub-portion of memory is a sector.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said first portion of memory is a portion of a flash memory.

8. A semiconductor device comprising:

a sector select circuit operable to select a pair of sectors, wherein said pair of sectors comprises a first sector to be erased;

a storage operable to store data of a second sector of said pair of sectors;

an erase circuit operable to store data of said second sector of said pair of sectors in said storage, erase said pair of sectors, and write data of said storage into said second sector of said pair of sectors, wherein said erase circuit is operable to store data of said second sector of said pair of sectors prior to erasing said pair of sectors.

9. The semiconductor device of claim 8 , wherein said erase circuit stores data of said second sector upon selection of said pair of sectors by said sector select circuit.

10. The semiconductor device of claim 8 , wherein said pair of sectors are portions of a flash memory.

11. The semiconductor device of claim 10 , wherein said flash memory utilizes mirrorbits technology.

12. The semiconductor device of claim 8 , wherein said pair of sectors are portions of a NAND flash memory.

13. The semiconductor device of claim 8 , wherein a storage capacity of said first sector is substantially the same as that of the second sector.

14. A semiconductor comprising:

means for selecting a first portion of memory, wherein said first portion of memory comprises a first sub-portion of memory and a second sub-portion of memory;

means for writing data of said second sub-portion of memory into a storage;

means for erasing data of said first sub-portion of memory and said second sub-portion of memory, wherein said means for writing data of said second sub-portion of memory is operable to writte data of said second sub-portion of memory prior to said means for erasing data erasing of said first sub-portion of memory ansd said second sub-portion of memory; and

means for writing data in said storage to said second sub-portion of memory.

15. The semiconductor of claim 14 , wherein said writing of data is performed upon said selection of said first portion of memory.

16. The semiconductor of claim 14 , wherein a storage capacity of said first sub-portion of memory is substantially the same as that of the second sub-portion of memory.

17. The semiconductor of claim 14 , wherein a storage capacity of said first sub-portion of memory and said second sub-portion of memory is substantially the same as that of said storage.

18. The semiconductor of claim 14 , wherein said first portion of memory is a pair of sectors.

19. The semiconductor of claim 18 , wherein said first sub-portion of memory is a sector and said second sub-portion of memory is a sector.

20. The semiconductor of claim 14 , wherein said first portion of memory is a portion of a flash memory.