Controller and operation method thereof

Abstract

An operation method includes buffering data chunks to be programmed in the multi-level cells in a write buffer; backing up at least one backup data chunk of the data chunks to a backup memory; determining a program sequence of the data chunks, the program sequence for programming a non-backup data chunk among the data chunks to the multi-level cells through a second step program operation of the multi-step program operation; and controlling the memory device to program the data chunks in the multi-level cells, based on the program sequence, by performing first and second step program operations of the multi-step program operation in a first page of the multi-level cells, the second step program operation performed in the first page later than another first step program operation performed in a second page subsequent to the first page.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.