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US 2006/0233020 A1Published application
Monitoring the threshold voltage of frequently read cells
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsPaul Ruby, Sean Eilert
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A canary cell may be used in a semiconductor memory to indicate an incipient failure. For example, the canary cell may be provided on rows in a flash memory. Before a read disturb occurs, the canary cell may first sense the condition, for example, because it may be biased with a higher drain bias and is, therefore, more susceptible to the read disturb problem.
Claims29
A method comprising:
- providing a cell which gives an early indication of a potential adverse situation before the situation actually affects data storing cells in a memory array.
A semiconductor memory comprising:
- an array of memory cells to store data;
- and
- a detector cell coupled to said memory cells to indicate when the memory cells may become subject to an adverse condition.
An article comprising a medium storing instructions that, if executed, enable a processor-based system to:
- prevent a read disturb by caching data stored in a memory upon detecting the possibility of a read disturb.
A system comprising:
- a controller;
- a semiconductor memory including a canary cell to detect a read disturb;
- and
- a static random access memory coupled to said controller.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.