Flash eeprom system with simultaneous multiple data sector programming and storage of physical block characteristics in other designated blocks
US6426893B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 17, 2000 |
| Grant date | Jul 30, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 17, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG11C2216/14
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A non-volatile memory system is formed of floating gate memory cells arranged in blocks as the smallest unit of memory cells that are erasable together. The system includes a number of features that may be implemented individually or in various cooperative combinations. One feature is the storage in separate blocks of the characteristics of a large number of blocks of cells in which user data is stored. These characteristics for user data blocks being accessed may, during operation of the memory system by its controller, be stored in a random access memory for ease of access and updating. According to another feature, multiple sectors of user data are stored at one time by alternately streaming chunks of data from the sectors to multiple memory blocks. Bytes of data in the stream may be shifted to avoid defective locations in the memory such as bad columns. Error correction codes may also be generated from the streaming data with a single generation circuit for the multiple sectors of data. The stream of data may further be transformed in order to tend to even out the wear among the blocks of memory. Yet another feature, for memory systems having multiple memory integrated circuit …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.