# US 12,014,764 B2 · Memory device including row hammer preventing circuitry and an operating method of the memory device

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- Number: US 12,014,764 B2
- Document ID: US12014764B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/939,327
- Filed: 2022-09-07
- Published: 2023-03-16
- Granted: 2024-06-18
- Earliest claimed: 2021-09-10
- Assignees: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Jungmin You
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12014764B2

## CPC

- G11C 7/24: Memory cell safety or protection circuits, e.g. arrangements for preventing inadvertent reading or writing; Status cells; Test cells
- G11C 11/40618: {Refresh operations over multiple banks or interleaving}
- G11C 11/40615: {Internal triggering or timing of refresh, e.g. hidden refresh, self refresh, pseudo-SRAMs}
- G11C 11/40622: {Partial refresh of memory arrays}
- G11C 11/4078: Safety or protection circuits, e.g. for preventing inadvertent or unauthorised reading or writing; Status cells; Test cells (protection of memory contents during checking or testing G11C29/52)
- G11C 11/408: Address circuits
- G11C 11/40611: {External triggering or timing of internal or partially internal refresh operations, e.g. auto-refresh or CAS-before-RAS triggered refresh}
- G11C: STATIC STORES (semiconductor memory devices H10B)

## Abstract

A row hammer preventing circuitry including: a first table storing a count value representing a hit count and an address bit of multiple entries, each entry corresponding to access-requested target rows; a second table including safe bits and a safe bit counter; and a row hammer preventing logic to identify masking entries, on which a masking comparison is to be performed, among the entries on the basis of the safe bit counter, to determine a hit or miss on the basis of whether other bits except an MSB among address bits of an access-requested target row match other bits except an MSB among address bits of the masking entries, and to generate a control signal indicating an additional refresh on rows adjacent to rows corresponding to a masking entry whose hit count is greater than a threshold value.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A row hammer preventing circuitry, comprising:
a first table configured to store a count value representing a hit count and an address bit of each of a plurality of entries, each of the entries corresponding to access-requested target rows;
a second table including safe bits representing whether each of the plurality of entries is accessed twice or more and a safe bit counter representing the number of the safe bits having a logic low; and
a row hammer preventing logic configured to identify masking entries, on which a masking comparison is to be performed, among the plurality of entries stored in the first table on the basis of a value of the safe bit counter, to determine a hit or a miss on the basis of whether other bits except a most significant bit among address bits of an access-requested target row match other bits except a most significant bit among address bits of the masking entries, and to generate a first control signal indicating an additional refresh is to be performed on rows adjacent to rows corresponding to a masking entry whose hit count is greater than a first threshold value.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The row hammer preventing circuitry of claim 1, wherein the row hammer preventing logic is configured to determine the hit or miss on the basis of whether all bits of address bits of normal entries except the masking entries among the plurality of entries match all bits of the address bits of the access-requested target row.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The row hammer preventing circuitry of claim 2, wherein the row hammer preventing logic is configured to, when a hit count among the normal entries is greater than a second threshold value, generate a second control signal indicating an additional refresh is to be performed on rows adjacent to a row corresponding to a normal entry of which hit count is greater than the second threshold value.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The row hammer preventing circuitry of claim 1, wherein the number of safe bits is the same as the number of entries of the first table.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The row hammer preventing circuitry of claim 1, wherein the masking entries are sequentially selected from among the plurality of entries on the basis of the same number as a safe bit counter value.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The row hammer preventing circuitry of claim 1, wherein a masking entry which is greater than the first threshold value comprises a first row and a second row, where the most significant bit differs and other address bits are the same.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The row hammer preventing circuitry of claim 6, wherein the row hammer preventing logic is configured to generate a third control signal indicating an additional refresh is to be performed on the first row and the second row in response to a repeated access to the first row.

### Claim 8

A memory device, comprising:
a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells; and
a memory controller including a table, which includes a count value representing a hit count and address bits of a plurality of entries, a safe bit representing whether each of a plurality of target rows is accessed twice or more during a refresh interval, and a safe bit counter representing the number of the safe bits having a logic low; and
a row hammer preventing circuitry configured to identify masking entries, on which a masking comparison is to be performed, among a plurality of entries stored in the table on the basis of a value of the safe bit counter and to determine a hit or a miss on the basis of whether other bits except a most significant bit among address bits of an access-requested target row match other bits except a most significant bit among address bits of the masking entries.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The memory device of claim 8, wherein the row hammer preventing circuitry is configured to, when a hit count among the masking entries is greater than a threshold value, indicate an additional refresh is to be performed on rows adjacent to rows corresponding to a masking entry which is greater than the threshold value.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The memory device of claim 9, wherein the row hammer preventing circuitry is configured to determine the hit or the miss on the basis of whether all bits of address bits of normal entries except the masking entries among the plurality of entries match all bits of address bits of the access-requested target row and to indicate an additional refresh is to be performed on rows adjacent to a row corresponding to a normal entry whose hit count is greater than a threshold value.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The memory device of claim 10, wherein the row hammer preventing circuitry is configured to, when all address bits of the normal entries do not match all address bits of the access-requested target row, determine the occurrence of the miss, to determine whether there is an entry including no address bit among the plurality of entries, and to write an address bit of the access-requested target row in an entry including no address bit.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The memory device of claim 11, wherein the row hammer preventing circuitry is configured to, when each of the plurality of entries includes an address bit, write the address bit of the access-requested target row in an entry having a lowest count value among the plurality of entries.

### Claim 13 (depends on 8)

The memory device of claim 8, wherein the number of safe bits is the same as the number of entries in the table.

### Claim 14 (depends on 8)

The memory device of claim 8, wherein the masking entries are sequentially selected from among the plurality of entries on the basis of the same number as a safe bit counter value.

### Claim 15 (depends on 9)

The memory device of claim 9, wherein a masking entry of which hit count is greater than the threshold value comprises a first row and a second row, where the most significant bit differs and other address bits are the same.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The memory device of claim 15, wherein the row hammer preventing logic is configured to generate a control signal indicating an additional refresh operation is to be performed on the first row and the second row in response to a repeated access to the first row.

### Claim 17

An operating method of a memory device, the operating method comprising:
receiving an access command corresponding to a target row;
identifying a masking entry among a plurality of entries corresponding to access-requested rows;
performing a first comparison in which it is determined whether other bits except a most significant bit in address bits of the masking entry matches other bits except a most significant bit in address bits of the target row;
when a hit occurs as a result of the first comparison, increasing a hit count of a masking entry corresponding to the hit; and
when the hit count is greater than a first threshold value, generating a control signal indicating an additional refresh is to be performed on rows respectively adjacent to two rows corresponding to the masking entry.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The operating method of claim 17, wherein the identifying of the masking entry comprises:
identifying the number of safe bits having a logic low, wherein the safe bits represent whether each of the plurality of entries is accessed twice or more; and
determining, as the masking entry, an entry including an identified number of safe bits among the plurality of entries.

### Claim 19 (depends on 17)

The operating method of claim 17, further comprising:
performing a second comparison in which it is determined whether all bits of address bits of a normal entry except the masking entry among the plurality of entries match all bits of address bits of the target row;
when a hit occurs in the second comparison, increasing a hit count of a normal entry corresponding to the hit; and
when the hit count is greater than a second threshold value, generating a control signal indicating an additional refresh is to be performed on rows adjacent to a row corresponding to the normal entry.

### Claim 20 (depends on 17)

The operating method of claim 17, wherein the generating of the control signal indicating the additional refresh is to be performed on the rows respectively adjacent to the two rows corresponding to the masking entry comprises performing a refresh on rows respectively adjacent to a first row and a second row, where other address bits except a most significant bit are the same.