Locally embedded bad sector marking for a memory
Disclosed herein is a memory arrangement and method thereof for locally marking bad memory cells. The memory arrangement includes a group of memory cells and a driver circuit for operating the group of memory cells. The driver circuit includes a remanent-polarizable memory element (e.g., a remanent-polarizable field-effect transistor). Depending on a memory state of the remanent-polarizable memory element, the driver circuit enables or disables the operation (e.g., a read/write operation) on the group of memory cells.
1. A memory arrangement comprising:
a group of memory cells; and
a driver circuit for operating the group of memory cells, wherein the driver circuit comprises a remanent-polarizable memory element and operating transistors, wherein the operating transistors are configured to set a memory state of the remanent-polarizable memory element, and
wherein the driver circuit is configured to enable or disable an operation of the group of memory cells based on the memory state of the remanent-polarizable memory element.
2. The memory arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the driver circuit comprises a row driver for a sector of memory cells, wherein the group of memory cells comprises the sector of memory cells.
3. The memory arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the remanent-polarizable memory element comprises a remanent-polarizable field-effect transistor.
4. The memory arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the driver circuit is configured to enable or disable an output signal of the driver circuit based on a control input signal.
5. The memory arrangement of claim 4 , wherein the control input signal comprises an address input signal representing whether the group of memory cells is a selected group of memory cells for the operation.
6. The memory arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the operation comprises a read operation and/or a write operation on the group of memory cells.
7. The memory arrangement of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the operating transistors is configured to receive an output signal from the driver circuit to set the memory state of the remanent-polarizable memory element based on a control input signal to the driver circuit, wherein the driver circuit is configured to enable or disable the output signal based on the control input signal.
8. The memory arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the operating transistors are further configured to provide an output signal to the memory arrangement indicating the memory state of the remanent-polarizable memory element.
9. The memory arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the operating transistors are configured to provide a voltage drop across the remanent-polarizable memory element in order to set the memory state.
10. The memory arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the memory arrangement is configured to receive control signals to control the operating transistors to set a plurality of operating modes of the driver circuit.
11. The memory arrangement of claim 10 , wherein the control signals are configured to provide signal combinations for setting the plurality of operation modes, wherein:
a first signal combination is configured to cause the driver circuit to operate in an erase operation mode of the remanent-polarizable memory element;
a second signal combination is configured to cause the driver circuit to operate in a programming operation mode of the remanent-polarizable memory element; and
a third signal combination is configured to cause the driver circuit to operate in a user operation mode of the group of memory cells.
12. The memory arrangement of claim 11 , wherein the erase operation mode comprises the driver circuit configured to set the memory state of the remanent-polarizable memory element to a first polarity, wherein the programming operation mode comprises the driver circuit configured to set the memory state of the remanent-polarizable memory element to a second polarity that is different from the first polarity.
13. The memory arrangement of claim 12 , wherein the first polarity is a positive polarity of the remanent-polarizable memory element, wherein the second polarity is a negative polarity of the remanent-polarizable memory element.
14. The memory arrangement of claim 13 , wherein the remanent-polarizable memory element comprises a remanent-polarizable field-effect transistor, wherein the negative polarity comprises a low voltage threshold state of the remanent-polarizable memory element and the positive polarity comprises a high voltage threshold state of the remanent-polarizable memory element.
15. The memory arrangement claim 11 , wherein the control signals include an address selection indicating whether the group of memory cells is a selected sector for programming, wherein in the programming operation mode, the driver circuit is configured to, if the group of memory cells is the selected sector, program the memory state of the remanent-polarizable memory element, and if the group of memory cells is not the selected sector, inhibit programing of the memory state of the remanent-polarizable memory element.
16. The memory arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the operating transistors are configured to provide a voltage drop across the remanent-polarizable memory element, wherein the voltage drop across the remanent-polarizable memory element comprises a threshold voltage level sufficient to set the memory state.
17. The memory arrangement of claim 10 , the memory arrangement further comprising a shifting circuit configured to shift an input voltage range of at least one of the control signals to a shifted voltage range that is different from the input voltage range.
18. The memory arrangement of claim 17 , wherein the shifted voltage range is sufficient to set the memory state of the remanent-polarizable memory element.