Non-volatile storage system that reclaims bad blocks
AssigneeWestern Digital Technologies, Inc.
InventorsViacheslav Anatolyevich Dubeyko, Seung-Hwan Song
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Abstract
A non-volatile storage system is configured to reclaim bad blocks. One embodiment includes determining that a block of non-volatile memory cells is a bad block, leaving the block idle for a period of time to allow for self-curing of the block, verifying success of the self-curing, refreshing the block, verifying that the refresh was successful and subsequently using the block to store host data.
Claims20
A non-volatile storage apparatus, comprising:
- a non-volatile memory structure arranged in blocks, the blocks are organized into subsets of blocks, each subset of blocks is assigned a phase of operation such that each block has an assigned phase of operation;
- and
- a controller connected to the memory structure, the controller is configured to:
- perform a repeating cycle of the phases of operation on the memory structure such that during each phase of operation blocks in their assigned phase of operation perform multiple times more memory operations than blocks not in their assigned phase of operation,
- determine that a first block of non-volatile memory cells is a bad block during an assigned phase of operation for the first block,
- leave the first block idle for a period of time to allow for passive self-curing of the first block, and
- after the self-curing, program host data into the first block in a subsequent assigned phase of operation for the first block.
A method for operating a memory system having non-volatile storage arranged in blocks, the blocks are organized into subsets of blocks, each subset of blocks is assigned a phase of operation such that each block has an assigned phased of operation, the method comprising:
- performing a repeating cycle of the phases of operation such that during each phase of operation blocks in their assigned phase of operation perform multiple times more memory operations than blocks not in their assigned phase of operation;
- determining that a first block of non-volatile memory cells is a bad block during an assigned phase of operation for the first block;
- leaving the first block idle for a period of time to allow for passive self-curing of the first block during a phase of operation that is not an assigned phase of operation for the first block;
- and
- using the first block to store host data after the self-curing in a subsequent assigned phase of operation for the first block.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a host interface;
- a memory interface;
- and
- a processor connected to the host interface and the memory interface, the processor is configured to perform memory operations for groups of non-volatile memory via the memory interface, the groups of non-volatile memory cells are organized into subsets of groups, the processor is configured to perform multiple times more memory operations on a first subset of the groups during a first time period as compared to memory operations performed on other subsets of the groups during the first time period, the processor is configured to perform multiple times more memory operations on a second subset of the groups during a second time period as compared to memory operations performed on other subsets of the groups during the second time period, the processor is configured to determine that a particular group of non-volatile memory cells of the first subset is a bad group and leave the particular group idle for a period of time such that no programming or erasing is performed for the particular group during the period of time to allow the particular group to self-cure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.