Background threshold voltage shifting using base and delta threshold voltage shift values in non-volatile memory

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10732846-B2
Application number	US-201916243956-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2019
Priority date	Sep 29, 2014
Publication date	Aug 4, 2020
Grant date	Aug 4, 2020

Abstract

A computer-implemented method according to one embodiment includes determining, after writing data to a non-volatile memory block, one or more delta threshold voltage shift (TVS Δ ) values. One or more overall threshold voltage shift values for the data written to the non-volatile memory block are calculated, the values being a function of the one or more TVS Δ values to be used when writing data to the non-volatile memory block. The overall threshold voltage shift values are stored. A base threshold voltage shift (TVS BASE ) value, the one or more TVS Δ values, or both the TVS BASE value and the one or more TVS Δ values are re-calibrated during a background health check after a predetermined number of background health checks without calibration are performed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
determining, after writing data to a non-volatile memory block, one or more delta threshold voltage shift (TVS Δ ) values configured to track temporary changes with respect to changes in the underlying threshold voltage distributions due to retention and/or read disturb errors;
calculating one or more overall threshold voltage shift values for the data written to the non-volatile memory block, the one or more overall threshold voltage shift values being a function of the one or more TVS Δ values to be used when writing data to the non-volatile memory block; and
storing the one or more overall threshold voltage shift values; and
re-calibrating a base threshold voltage shift (TVS BASE ) value, the one or more TVS Δ values, or both the base threshold voltage shift (TVS BASE ) value and the one or more TVS Δ values, during a background health check after a predetermined number of background health checks without calibration are performed.

2. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 , comprising resetting the one or more TVS Δ values when the non-volatile memory block is erased.

3. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 , comprising applying the one or more overall threshold voltage shift values to a read operation of the data stored to the non-volatile memory block upon receiving a read request.

4. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 , comprising: reading one or more TVS values from a non-volatile controller memory;
resetting a program/erase cycle count since last calibration after calibrating the one or more overall threshold voltage shift values; and
storing the one or more TVS Δ values, and the program/erase cycle count since last calibration to the non-volatile controller memory.

5. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 , wherein each overall threshold voltage shift value equals a sum of a corresponding base threshold voltage shift (TVS BASE ) value and a corresponding TVS Δ value, the TVS BASE value configured to track permanent changes in underlying threshold voltage distributions due to cycling of the non-volatile memory block.

6. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the predetermined number of background health checks without calibration is from 1 to 5.

7. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 6 , wherein a block is marked for re-calibration when a program/erase cycle count since last calibration exceeds a predetermined threshold, wherein blocks marked for re-calibration are forced to be calibrated in a read sweep background health check, and wherein the blocks are unmarked after re-calibration is completed.

8. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 6 , wherein the re-calibration is not performed when a program/erase cycle count is lower than a predetermined threshold.

9. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more TVS Δ values are determined periodically in the background without interrupting normal operations directed at the non-volatile memory block.

10. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 , comprising grouping together physical non-volatile pages which have similar TVS Δ values into a page group.

11. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
determining, after writing data to a non-volatile memory block, one or more base threshold voltage shift (TVS BASE ) values configured to track permanent changes in underlying threshold voltage distributions due to cycling of the non-volatile memory block;
calculating an overall threshold voltage shift value for the data written to the non-volatile memory block, the overall threshold voltage shift value being a function of the one or more TVS BASE values; and
storing the overall threshold voltage shift value.

12. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11 , comprising resetting the one or more TVS Δ values when the non-volatile memory block is erased.

13. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11 , comprising determining, after the writing of data to the non-volatile memory block, one or more delta threshold voltage shift (TVS Δ ) values configured to track temporary changes, with respect to changes in the underlying threshold voltage distributions due to retention and/or read disturb errors.

14. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11 , comprising applying the overall threshold voltage shift value to a read operation of the data stored to the non-volatile memory block upon receiving a read request.

15. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11 , comprising:
reading one or more TVS values from a non-volatile controller memory;
resetting a program/erase cycle count since last calibration after calibrating the overall threshold voltage shift value; and
storing the one or more TVS BASE values and the program/erase cycle count since last calibration to the non-volatile controller memory.

16. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11 , comprising re-calibrating the one or more TVS BASE values during a background health check after a predetermined number of background health checks without calibration are performed, wherein the predetermined number of background health checks without calibration is from 1 to 5.

17. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11 , wherein at least one of the one or more TVS BASE values and the one or more TVS Δ values are determined periodically in the background without interrupting normal operations directed at the non-volatile memory block.

18. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11 , comprising:
grouping together physical non-volatile pages which have similar TVS BASE and TVS Δ values into a page group; and
creating a mapping that correlates the TVS BASE values as tracked per page group to actual read voltage shift values.

19. A computer program product for managing threshold voltage shifts in non-volatile memory, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processing circuit to cause the processing circuit to:
calculate, by the processing circuit, an overall threshold voltage shift value for data written to a non-volatile memory block, the overall threshold voltage shift value being a function of a base threshold voltage shift (TVS BASE ) value and delta threshold voltage shift (TVS Δ ) value to be used when writing data to the non-volatile memory block, the TVS BASE value representing a permanent change in underlying threshold voltage distributions due to cycling of the non-volatile memory block, the TVS Δ value representing a temporary change with respect to a change in the underlying threshold voltage distributions due to retention and/or read disturb errors; and
apply, by the processing circuit, the overall threshold voltage shift value to a read operation of the data stored to the non-volatile memory block upon receiving a read request.

20. The computer program product as recited in claim 19 , comprising program instructions executable by the processing circuit to cause the processing circuit to re-calibrate the one or more TVS BASE values during a background health check after a predetermined number of background health checks without calibration are performed, wherein the predetermined number of background health checks without calibration is from 1 to 5.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Camp Charles J
• Fisher Timothy J
• Fry Aaron D
• Ioannou Nikolas
• Koltsidas Ioannis
• Papandreou Nikolaos
• Parnell Thomas
• Pletka Roman A
• Pozidis Charalampos
• Tomic Sasa

Classifications

• G11C16/3427 Primary

  Circuits or methods to prevent or reduce disturbance of the state of a memory cell when neighbouring cells are read or written · CPC title

• G11C2029/0409

  Online test · CPC title

• G11C16/14

  Circuits for erasing electrically, e.g. erase voltage switching circuits · CPC title

• G11C16/10

  Programming or data input circuits · CPC title

• G06F3/0688

  Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays · CPC title