IP Library › Granted Patent US 11,568,933
Granted Patent B1
US 11,568,933 · App. 17/458,840 · Granted Jan 31, 2023

Memory plane access management

Inventors: Eric N. Lee (San Jose, CA); Robert W. Strong (Folsom, CA); William Akin (Morgan Hill, CA); Jeremy Binfet (Boise, ID)
Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
G11C16/0433G11C16/22G11C16/24G11C16/30G11C16/3404
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,568,933
App. No.
17/458,840
Granted
Jan 31, 2023
Kind
B1
Abstract

A method includes identifying a target plane in respective planes of a memory die in a non-volatile memory array and identifying, from blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to a common bit line in the target plane, at least one target block in the target plane. The method further includes performing an operation to disable at least one gate associated with the at least one target block to prevent access to the blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane.

Claims (36)

1. A method, comprising:

identifying a target plane in respective planes of a memory die in a non-volatile memory array;

identifying, from blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to a common bit line in the target plane, at least one target block in the target plane; and

performing an operation to disable at least one gate associated with the at least one target block to prevent access to the blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the operation further comprises reducing a voltage of the at least one gate to a voltage that is less than a voltage threshold.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein performing the operation further comprises reducing a voltage of the at least one gate to voltage that is substantially equal to a voltage of the common bit line during an operation.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the voltage threshold is equal to a read value level.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the voltage threshold is a voltage in a range from substantially about 1 volt to substantially about 10 volts.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the operation to disable further comprises performing an operation to disable access to each of the blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the operation to disable access further comprises performing an operation to disable access to some but not all of the respective planes in the memory die.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the operation to disable further comprises performing the operation to disable the at least one gate associated with some but not all of the plurality of blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the operation to disable further comprises performing the operation to disable an individual gate associated with an individual block of the plurality of blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory plane access management component configured to:

identify a target plane in respective planes of a block of non-volatile memory cells of a plurality of blocks of non-volatile memory cells in a non-volatile memory device;

identify, from blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to a common bit line in the target plane, at least one target block in the plurality of blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane; and

perform an operation on at least one gate associated with the at least one target block to prevent access to each block of the plurality of blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the at least one gate further comprises at least one select gate.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the memory plane access management component is further to perform the operation on the select gate by altering a voltage of a select gate source (SGS) transistor, a select gate drain (SGD) transistor, or both, to a first voltage that is less than a voltage threshold.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the memory plane access management component is further to provide signaling to reenable access to each block of the plurality of blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the memory plane access management component is further to provide the signaling to reenable the access by altering the voltage of SGS transistor, the SGD transistor, or both, from the first voltage to a second voltage that is greater than the voltage threshold.

15. A system, comprising:

a plurality of memory components arranged to form a stackable cross-gridded array of a plurality of blocks of non-volatile memory cells; and

a processing device coupled to the plurality of memory components, the processing device to perform operations comprising:

identifying a target plane in respective planes of a memory die in the stackable cross-gridded array of a plurality of blocks of non-volatile memory cells;

identifying, from blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to a common bit line in the target plane, at least one target block of non-volatile memory cells;

performing an operation on at least one gate associated with the at least one target block to prevent access to each of the blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane;

subsequent to performing the operation on the at least one target block, performing an operation on the at least one target block to reenable access to each of the blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane; and

performing a memory operation on the blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the at least one target plane.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of blocks of non-volatile memory cells are NAND memory cells in a NAND memory array resident on a mobile computing device.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the processing device is to perform the operation on the at least one gate associated with the at least one target block in the absence of performing an operation on any of the other blocks of non-volatile memory cells in the target plane.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the processing device is to perform the operation on the at least one gate associated with the at least one target block in the absence of an erase operation on any of the blocks of non-volatile memory cells in the target plane.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the processing device is further to perform operations comprising:

detecting initiation of a power-up event associated with the non-volatile memory device; and

performing the operation on at least one gate associated with the at least one target block to prevent access to each of the blocks of non-volatile memory cells coupled to the common bit line in the target plane prior to completion of the power-up event.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the processing device is further to perform the operation to reenable the access responsive to receipt of signaling indicative of a vendor specific access code.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 27, 2021
From: LEE, ERIC N.; STRONG, ROBERT W.; AKIN, WILLIAM; BINFET, JEREMY
To: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Reel/Frame 057307/0447 →
Cited By (1)
US 12,272,154