Semiconductor memory devices, memory systems including the same and methods of operating memory systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10037244-B2
Application number	US-201615238216-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 16, 2016
Priority date	Nov 16, 2015
Publication date	Jul 31, 2018
Grant date	Jul 31, 2018

Abstract

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array, an error correction circuit, an error log register and a control logic circuit. The memory cell array includes a plurality of memory bank arrays and each of the memory bank arrays includes a plurality of pages. The control logic circuit is configured to control the error correction circuit to perform an ECC decoding sequentially on some of the pages designated at least one access address for detecting at least one bit error, in response to a first command received from a memory controller. The control logic circuit performs an error logging operation to write page error information into the error log register and the page error information includes a number of error occurrence on each of the some pages determined from the detecting.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A semiconductor memory device comprising:
a memory cell array including a plurality of memory bank arrays, wherein each memory bank array includes a plurality of pages;
an error correction circuit;
an error log register; and
a control logic circuit,
wherein the control logic circuit is configured to control the error correction circuit to perform an error check and correction (ECC) decoding sequentially on some of the pages designated by at least one access address for detecting at least one bit error in each of the some pages, in response to a first command received from a memory controller,
wherein the control logic circuit determines an error occurrence count for each of the some pages based on a number of the corresponding detected at least one bit error,
wherein the control logic circuit is configured to perform an error logging operation to write page error information into the error log register, and
wherein the page error information includes the error occurrence count for each of the some pages.

2. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1 , wherein the control logic circuit is configured to control the error correction circuit to read a first unit of data from each of a plurality sub-pages in a first page of the some pages and to perform the ECC decoding on each first unit of data sequentially, the first unit of data including main data and parity data, and
wherein the error correction circuit is configured to provide an error generation signal to the control logic circuit when the first unit of data includes at least one bit error based on a result of the ECC decoding.

3. The semiconductor memory device of claim 2 , wherein when the first unit of data includes the at least one bit error, the control logic circuit is configured to control the error correction circuit to perform a scrubbing operation to correct the at least one bit error and write back the corrected first unit of data to a memory location corresponding to the sub-page.

4. The semiconductor memory device of claim 2 , wherein the control logic circuit is configured to count a number of the error generation signals received to write first page error information into the error log register and the first page error information includes a number of error occurrences in the first page.

5. The semiconductor memory device of claim 2 , wherein when the error logging operation on the first page has completed, the control logic circuit is configured to control the error correction circuit to perform the ECC decoding operation on a second page of the some pages, and
the control logic circuit is configured to write a second page error information into the error log register and the second page error information includes a number of error occurrences in the second page.

6. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1 , wherein the control logic circuit is configured to notify the memory controller when the error occurrence count in one page of the some pages has reached a threshold immediately by using an alert signal,
the memory controller is configured to apply a scrubbing command to the semiconductor memory device in response to the alert signal, and
the control logic circuit is configured to control the error correction circuit to perform a scrubbing operation on the one page.

7. The semiconductor memory device of claim 6 , wherein the control logic circuit is configured to maintain the alert signal at a logic high level during a first interval when the error occurrence count in the one page has reached the threshold.

8. The semiconductor memory device of claim 6 , wherein the control logic circuit is configured to transmit the alert signal to the memory controller via a dedicated pin.

9. The semiconductor memory device of claim 6 , wherein the control logic circuit is configured to control the error correction circuit to perform the scrubbing operation sequentially on sub-pages of the one page, in response to the scrubbing command.

10. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1 , wherein the error log register includes:
a first column that stores an address information of each of the some pages;
a second column that stores a number of error occurrence of each of the some pages;
a third column that stores a number of sub-pages including a bit error, of each of the some pages;
a fourth column that stores a flag information indicating whether error information of each of the some pages is initially written; and
a fifth column that stores a ranking information on ranking of a number of error occurrences based on the error occurrence count of each of the some pages.

11. The semiconductor memory device of claim 10 , wherein the address information includes a bank group address, a bank address and a row address of each of the some pages.

12. The semiconductor memory device of claim 10 , wherein the control logic circuit is configured to write the flag information of one page of the some pages with a first logic level, when the error information of the one page is initially written.

13. The semiconductor memory device of claim 10 , wherein the control logic circuit is configured to control the error correction circuit to perform the ECC decoding and the error logging on some other pages designated by at least one second access address, in response to a second command and the at least one second access address, and
the error log register further includes a sixth column that stores a change in number of error occurrences in a same page.

14. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1 , wherein the control logic circuit is configured to provide the memory controller with the page error information of the some pages in the error log register as an error information signal, in response to a read command from the memory controller.

15. The semiconductor memory device of claim 1 , wherein the memory cell array includes a three-dimensional memory cell array and each of the memory bank arrays includes a plurality of dynamic memory cells or a plurality of resistive type memory cells.

16. A memory system comprising:
the semiconductor memory device of claim 1 ; and
the memory controller, wherein the memory controller is configured to control the semiconductor memory device.

17. A method of operating a memory system including a semiconductor memory device and a memory controller configured to control the semiconductor memory device, the method comprising:
generating, by the memory controller, a command and an access address;
performing, by the semiconductor memory device, an error check and correction (ECC) decoding on some pages of the memory device designated by the access address for detecting at least one bit error in each of the some pages, in response to the command;
determining, by a control circuit in the semiconductor memory device, an error occurrence count for each of the some pages based on a number of the corresponding detected at least one bit error; and
performing, by the semiconductor memory device, an error logging operation to write page error information into the error log register, the page error information including the error occurrence count for each of the some pages.

18. A semiconductor memory device comprising:
a memory cell array;
a register storing error occurrence counts for each page of a plurality of pages of the memory cell array, where each stored error occurrence count is based on al least one error bit that occurred in a corresponding one of the pages; and
a controller configured to receive a command through a first pin of the

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Chung Hoi-Ju
• Cha Sang-Uhn
• Song Ho-Young
• Kim Hyun-Joong

Classifications

• G06F11/1068 Primary

  in sector programmable memories, e.g. flash disk (G06F11/1072 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G11C2029/0411

  Online error correction · CPC title

• G06F3/0619

  in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors · CPC title

• G11C29/70

  Masking faults in memories by using spares or by reconfiguring · CPC title

• G06F3/0679

  Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP] · CPC title