Method and device for distributing holdup energy to memory arrays

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9665451-B2
Application number	US-201514599150-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 16, 2015
Priority date	Oct 7, 2014
Publication date	May 30, 2017
Grant date	May 30, 2017

Abstract

The various embodiments described herein include methods and/or devices used to protect data in a storage device. In one aspect, a method includes performing a power fail operation on a first section of the storage device, the first section of the storage device comprising one or more memory group modules. The power fail operation includes supplying power, via one or more energy storage devices, to the one or more memory group modules, where each memory group module includes a respective memory group module controller. The power fail operation also includes supplying power, via an additional energy storage device, to a storage device controller, the storage device controller corresponding to the first section of the storage device. The additional energy storage device is distinct from the one or more energy storage devices and each are distinct from a power source used during normal operation of the storage device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A solid-state drive, comprising:
an interface for coupling the solid-state drive to a host system;
one or more memory group modules, each memory group module of the one or more memory group modules including a respective memory controller and non-volatile memory, wherein each respective memory controller is configured to control a plurality of operations within a corresponding memory group module;
a storage device controller coupled to the one or more memory group modules, the storage device controller configured to control a plurality of data transfer operations; and
one or more energy storage devices, each of the one or more energy storage devices for supplying power to one or more corresponding memory group modules during a power fail operation;
wherein the solid-state drive is configured to couple each energy storage device of the one or more energy storage devices to one or more corresponding memory group modules without coupling the energy storage device to the storage device controller during the power fail operation.

2. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , wherein at least one memory group module of the one or more memory group modules is configured to harden data during the power fail operation.

3. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , further comprising volatile memory corresponding to each memory group module of the one or more memory group modules;
wherein hardening data comprises, for a respective memory group module, transferring data to the non-volatile memory within the respective memory group module from the corresponding volatile memory.

4. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , wherein the at least one memory group module is further configured to reset subsequent to hardening the data.

5. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , wherein each memory group module of the one or more memory group modules is configured to disregard signals received from the storage device controller during the power fail operation.

6. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , wherein the one or more memory group modules include at least first and second memory group modules, the one or more energy storage devices include at least first and second energy storage devices, and the solid-state drive is configured to couple the first energy storage device to the first memory group module but not the second memory group module, and is further configured to couple the second energy storage device to the second memory group module but not the first memory group module.

7. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , wherein the one or more energy storage devices consist of a first energy storage device, and the one or more memory group modules comprise a plurality of memory group modules; and
the first energy storage device is coupled to each memory group module of the plurality of memory group modules.

8. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , wherein the one or more memory group modules comprise a plurality of memory group modules; and
wherein a first subset of the plurality of memory group modules are not coupled to the one or more energy storage devices.

9. The solid-state drive of claim 8 , wherein the solid-state drive is configured to prevent the storage of critical data in memory corresponding to the first subset of the plurality of memory group modules.

10. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , wherein the storage device controller is configured to:
receive data from the host system to be written to non-volatile memory;
transfer the data to at least one memory group module of the one or more memory group modules; and
after transferring the data to the at least one memory group module, send an acknowledgement signal to the host, wherein the acknowledgement signal indicates to the host system that the data has been stored in non-volatile memory.

11. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , wherein the solid-state drive further comprises an additional energy storage device coupled to the storage device controller, the additional energy storage device configured to supply power to the storage device controller during the power fail operation, wherein the additional energy storage device is distinct from the one or more energy storage devices.

12. The solid-state drive of claim 11 , further comprising volatile memory associated with the storage device controller; and
wherein the solid-state drive is further configured to transfer data from the volatile memory associated with the storage device controller to at least one memory group module of the one or more memory group modules prior to resetting the storage device controller.

13. The solid-state drive of claim 11 , further comprising volatile memory associated with the storage device controller;
wherein data is stored in the volatile memory associated with the storage device controller; and
wherein the solid-state drive is further configured to reset the storage device controller regardless of the data stored in the volatile memory associated with the storage device controller.

14. The solid-state drive of claim 13 , wherein the data stored in the volatile memory associated with the storage device controller comprises metadata corresponding to a mapping of non-volatile memory in the one or more memory group modules; and
wherein the solid-state drive is further configured to reconstruct the metadata corresponding to the mapping of non-volatile memory in the one or more memory group modules from metadata stored in non-volatile memory of at least one memory group module of the one or more memory group modules subsequent to the power fail operation.

15. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , wherein the solid-state drive is configured to reset the storage device controller during the power fail operation.

16. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , wherein the solid-state drive is configured to:
determine whether a power supply voltage provided to the solid-state drive meets predetermined power fail criteria; and
in accordance with a determination that the power supply voltage meets the predetermined power fail criteria, perform the power fail operation.

17. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more boost regulators, each boost regulator of the one or more boost regulators configured to boost a respective input voltage and having an output coupled to at least one memory group module of the one or more memory group modules; and
one or more selectors, each selector of the one or more selectors configured to selectively couple a respective energy storage device to either an input or an output of a corresponding boost regulator;
wherein a respective selector is configured to couple a respective energy storage device to the output of a corresponding boost regulator during normal operation of the solid-state drive; and
wherein the selector is further configured to couple the respective energy storage device to the input of the corresponding boost regulator during the power fail operation.

18. The solid-state drive of claim 1 , further comprising a regulator module coupled to the interface, the regulator module comprising one or more regulators for supplying power to a first portion of the solid-state drive, wherein the first portion includes at least the one or more memory group modules;
wherein each of the one or more energy storage devices is further coupled to a respective output of the regulator module.

19. The solid-state drive of claim 18 , wherein each energy storage device of the one or more energy storage devices is further configured to buffer power spikes in power rece

Assignees

• Sandisk Entpr Ip Llc
• Sandisk Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Lucas Gregg S
• Ellis Robert W

Classifications

• G06F3/0659

  Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling · CPC title

• G06F11/3058

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations (thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206) · CPC title

• G06F3/0673

  Single storage device · CPC title

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F1/26

  Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof (for memories G11C) · CPC title