Device and method for controlling refresh cycles of non-volatile memories
AssigneeCommissariat A L'energie Atomique Et Aux Energies Alternatives
InventorsValentin Gherman, Marcelino Seif
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Abstract
A device for controlling the refresh cycles of data stored in a non-volatile memory is provided. The device comprises a temperature sensor capable of measuring the temperature of at least one non-volatile memory and of delivering information representing the measured temperature, and a control module coupled to the temperature sensor capable of using the temperature information with modelling of the impact of the temperature on the retention time of the data in order to determine whether a loss of data is imminent and, if so, in order to generate an alarm.
Claims13
A device for controlling refresh cycles for refreshing data stored in non-volatile memory, the device comprising:
- a temperature sensor to measure a measured temperature of at least one non-volatile memory wherein said nonvolatile memory being composed of a plurality of memory blocks, and to deliver a value representative of the measured temperature;
- and
- a control module coupled to the temperature sensor, comprising:
- an encoder to transform the value representative of the measured temperature into a value proportional to an impact of the measured temperature on a data retention time in said at least one non-volatile memory;
- and
- an adder coupled to the encoder and to a status register, the adder receiving as input an output value of the encoder and a state value of the status register, the status register being configured to generate an alert signal each time the state value stored in the status register is increased by a predefined amount;
- the device further comprising a microcontroller coupled to the control module to receive the alert signal and to determine for each memory block of said at least one non-volatile memory, whether a data refresh cycle must be performed for said memory block, as a function of the data retention time remaining for said memory block.
A method for controlling refresh cycles for refreshing data stored in non-volatile memory, the method comprising the steps of:
- measuring a temperature of at least one non-volatile memory, said nonvolatile memory being composed of a plurality of memory blocks, and delivering a value representative of the measured temperature;
- using the value representative of the measured temperature with a modeling of an impact of the measured temperature on a data retention time to transform said value representative of the measured temperature into a value proportional to the impact of the measured temperature on the data retention time in said at least one non-volatile memory;
- adding said value proportional to the impact of the measured temperature on the data retention time in said at least one non-volatile memory to a state value of a status register;
- determining whether the resulting value is increased by a predefined amount;
- and
- if so generating an alert signal warning of imminent loss of data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.