IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,354,653
Granted Patent B2
US 12,354,653 · App. 17/948,520 · Granted Jul 8, 2025

Drift compensation for codewords in memory

Inventors: Marco Sforzin (Cernusco Sul Naviglio, IT); Paolo Amato (Treviglio, IT); Luca Barletta (Gallarate, IT); Marco Pietro Ferrari (Milan, IT); Antonino Favano (Brolo, IT)
Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
G11C11/5642G11C5/147G11C11/5628
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,354,653
App. No.
17/948,520
Granted
Jul 8, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present disclosure includes apparatuses, methods, and systems for drift compensation for codewords in memory. An embodiment includes a memory device having an array of memory cells, and circuitry to sense a codeword stored in the array, determine a derivative value of a cell metric for each cell of the codeword based on a threshold voltage of that respective cell, a mean of threshold voltage values of each cell of the codeword, and a value proportional to a total quantity of the cells of the codeword and a position of the threshold voltage value of that respective cell in the threshold voltage values of each cell of the codeword, determine the cell metric for which the determined derivative value changes from a first polarity to a second polarity, input the determined cell metric to a Pearson detector, and determine originally programmed data of the codeword using the Pearson detector.

Claims (72)

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory device, wherein the memory device includes:

an array of memory cells; and

circuitry configured to:

sense a codeword stored in the array of memory cells;

determine a derivative value of a cell metric for each memory cell of the sensed codeword, wherein the derivative value of the cell metric for each respective memory cell is determined based on:

a threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell;

a mean of threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword; and

a value proportional to a total quantity of the memory cells of the codeword and a position of the threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell in the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword;

determine the cell metric for which the determined derivative value changes from a first polarity to a second polarity;

input the determined cell metric to a Pearson detector; and

determine originally programmed data of the codeword using the Pearson detector.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first polarity is negative and the second polarity is positive.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the derivative value of the cell metric for each respective memory cell of the sensed codeword corresponds to a difference between the cell metric for that respective memory cell and the cell metric for a memory cell whose threshold voltage value immediately precedes the threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell in the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the determined cell metric input to the Pearson detector comprises a Pearson distance between the derivative value of the determined cell metric and a correlation between the originally programmed data of the codeword and the sensed codeword.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:

the sensed codeword comprises a sensed data value for each memory cell of the codeword; and

the originally programmed data of the codeword comprises a programmed data value for each memory cell of the codeword.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the circuitry is configured to add a data bit having a first data value to the sensed codeword if the sensed data value for each memory cell of the codeword comprises only a second data value.

7. A method, comprising:

sensing a codeword stored in an array of memory cells of a memory device;

determining, for each memory cell of the sensed codeword, a derivative value of a cell metric, wherein the derivative value of the cell metric for each respective memory cell is determined based on:

a threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell;

a mean of threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword; and

a value proportional to a total quantity of the memory cells of the codeword and a position of the threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell in the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword;

determining the cell metric for which the determined derivative value changes from a negative value to a positive value;

inputting the determined cell metric to a Pearson detector; and

determining originally programmed data of the codeword using the Pearson detector.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the method includes determining the threshold voltage value of each respective memory cell of the sensed codeword after a switching event occurs in that respective memory cell.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the method includes initiating the switching event in each respective memory cell by applying a ramped voltage to the memory cells of the sensed codeword.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the method includes:

sorting the threshold voltage values of the memory cells of the sensed codeword; and

dividing the sorted threshold voltage values into a first distribution and a second distribution.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein:

the first distribution corresponds to a first data state; and

the second distribution corresponds to a second data state.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein:

the threshold voltage values in the first distribution are greater than a particular value; and

the threshold voltage values in the second distribution are less than the particular value.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a memory device having an array of memory cells; and

a controller coupled to the memory device and configured to:

determine, for each memory cell of a sensed codeword in the memory device, a derivative value of a cell metric for each memory cell of the sensed codeword, wherein the derivative value of the cell metric for each respective memory cell is determined based on:

a threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell;

a mean of threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword; and

a value proportional to a total quantity of the memory cells of the codeword and a position of the threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell in the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword;

determine the cell metric for which the determined derivative value changes from a first polarity to a second polarity; and

use the determined cell metric as an input to a Pearson detector to determine an original codeword for the sensed codeword.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the controller is configured to:

determine the mean of the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword by performing a first sense operation; and

determine the derivative value of the cell metric for each memory cell of the sensed codeword by performing a second sense operation.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the first sense operation and the second sense operation are different types of sense operations.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the array of memory cells comprises an array of NAND flash memory cells.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the controller is configured to determine the derivative value of the cell metric for each memory cell of the sense codeword by performing a single sense operation.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the controller is configured to:

determine the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword by performing the single sense operation; and

use the threshold voltage values determined by performing the single sense operation to determine the mean of the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword and the derivative value of the cell metric for each memory cell of the sensed codeword.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the array of memory cells comprises an array of self-selecting memory cells in which a single material serves as a select element and a storage element.

20. A method, comprising:

determining, by a controller coupled to a memory device, for each memory cell of a sensed codeword in the memory device, a derivative value of a cell metric for each memory cell of the sensed codeword, wherein the derivative value of the cell metric for each respective memory cell is determined based on:

a threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell;

a mean of threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword; and

a value proportional to a total quantity of the memory cells of the codeword and a position of the threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell in the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword;

determining, by the controller, the cell metric for which the determined derivative value changes from a negative value to a positive value; and

determining, by a Pearson detector on the memory device, an original codeword for the sensed codeword using the determined cell metric.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the Pearson detector determines the original codeword by searching for a codeword that has a lowest Pearson distance from the original codeword relative to other codewords.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the method includes determining, by the Pearson detector, the lowest Pearson distance using a weight estimator.

23. The method of claim 20 , wherein the method includes programming the determined original codeword to the memory device.

24. The method of claim 20 , wherein the value proportional to the total quantity of the memory cells of the codeword and the position of the threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell in the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword is given by:

( N+ 1−2 w )/ N

wherein N is the total quantity of the memory cells of the codeword and w is the position of the threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell in the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword.

25. The method of claim 20 , wherein the method includes determining the value proportional to the total quantity of the memory cells of the codeword and the position of the threshold voltage value of that respective memory cell in the threshold voltage values of each memory cell of the sensed codeword using a look up table.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 20, 2022
From: SFORZIN, MARCO; AMATO, PAOLO; BARLETTA, LUCA; FERRARI, MARCO PIETRO; FAVANO, ANTONINO
To: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Reel/Frame 061151/0246 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 63402329 · Aug 30, 2022
Related Publication 20240071486A1 · Feb 29, 2024
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