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US 11,908,521 B2Granted
Non-volatile memory with redundant control line driver
AssigneeWestern Digital Technologies, Inc.
InventorsLiang Li, Qin Zhen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A non-volatile memory includes memory cells, word lines connected to the memory cells, and a set of regular control gate drivers connected to the word lines. The control gate drivers include different subsets of control gate drivers that receive different sources of voltage and provide different output voltages. A redundant control gate driver, that receives the different sources of voltage and provides the different output voltages, is included that can replace any of the regular control gate drivers.
Claims18
A non-volatile storage apparatus, comprising:
- non-volatile memory cells;
- word lines connected to the non-volatile memory cells;
- a set of regular control gate drivers, each regular control gate driver of the set of regular control gate drivers is capable of outputting a plurality of output voltages such that a first subset of the set of regular control gate drivers are configured to output a first plurality of output voltages and a second subset of the set of regular control gate drivers are configured to output a second plurality of output voltages, the first plurality of output voltages includes one or more different voltages than the second plurality of output voltages;
- a plurality of switches connected to the word lines and the regular control gate drivers;
- a redundant control gate driver connected to the plurality of switches, the redundant control gate driver is configured to output the first plurality of output voltages and the second plurality of output voltages, the plurality of switches are configured to selectively replace any one of the regular control gate drivers of the set of regular control gate drivers with the redundant control gate driver;
- and
- a control circuit connected to the set of regular control gate drivers, the redundant control gate driver, and the plurality of switches;
- the control circuit is configured to operate the plurality of switches to selectively replace any one of the regular control gate drivers of the set of regular control gate drivers with the redundant control gate driver;
- the control circuit is configured to automatically detect that a particular regular control gate driver of the set of regular control gate drivers is defective and operate the redundant control gate driver and the plurality of switches to replace the particular regular control gate driver with the redundant control gate driver.
6 more elements
A method for operating non-volatile storage, comprising:
- testing a set of regular control gate drivers, each regular control gate driver of the set of regular control gate drivers receives multiple different sources of voltage and comprises multiple voltage paths including a different voltage path connected to each of the received multiple different sources of voltage, the testing comprises:
- separately testing each voltage path of each regular control gate driver of the set of regular control gate drivers by driving a respective source of voltage through the respective voltage path and comparing an output for the respective control gate driver to an upper reference and a lower reference for each voltage path of each regular control gate driver of the set of regular control gate drivers, and
- determining that a particular regular control gate driver of the set of regular control gate drivers is defective because an output for the particular regular control gate driver is either above the upper reference or below the lower reference when driving at least one source of voltage through at least one of the voltage paths for the particular regular control gate driver;
- and
- replacing the particular regular control gate driver with a redundant control gate driver that is connected to the sources of voltage connected to the particular regular control gate driver by selectively connecting the redundant control gate driver to the output for the particular regular control gate driver and disconnecting the particular regular control gate driver from the output for the particular regular control gate driver.
2 more elements
A non-volatile storage apparatus, comprising:
- a non-volatile memory structure comprising non-volatile memory cells, word lines connected to the non-volatile memory cells and bit lines connected to the non-volatile memory cells;
- a set of regular control gate drivers, each regular control gate driver of the set of regular control gate drivers receives multiple different sources of voltage and comprises multiple voltage paths including a different voltage path connected to each of the received multiple different sources of voltage;
- a plurality of switches connected to the word lines and the regular control gate drivers, each control gate driver of the set of control gate drivers is connected to only a subset of the word lines via the plurality of switches;
- a redundant control gate driver connected to the plurality of switches, the redundant control gate driver is connected to all of the word lines and selectively in electrical communication with a selectable subset of the word lines;
- a control circuit connected to the set of regular control gate drivers, the redundant control gate driver, the bit lines and the plurality of switches;
- and
- a data structure separately indicating whether each voltage path of each control gate driver of the set of control gate drivers is defective, the control circuit is configured to operate the redundant control gate driver and the plurality of switches to selectively replace any one of the regular control gate drivers of the set of regular control gate drivers with the redundant control gate driver based on the data structure.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.