Self-heating nand for recovery at end of life

A method for recovering NAND from excessive wear, the method comprising:

• selecting a victim NAND string in a three-dimensional NAND memory structure, the victim NAND string having a channel;
• applying a first voltage to a bit line connected to the victim NAND string while applying a second voltage to control gates of memory cells on the victim NAND string to generate a current through the channel of the victim NAND string to heat a region of the memory structure having target NAND strings;
• and
• regulating the first voltage to the bit line to maintain temperature of the region to a target range of temperatures for a period of time to recover fail bits due to trapped charges in tunneling layers of the memory cells on the target NAND strings.

A system comprising:

• a semiconductor die having a memory structure having alternating layers of conductive material and insulating material and NAND strings extending through the alternating layers of conductive material and insulating material, the NAND strings each comprising a NAND channel, the NAND strings comprising memory cells each having a charge trap layer and a tunneling layer between the charge trap layer and the NAND channel, the memory structure having bit lines associated with the NAND strings;
• and
• one or more control circuits in communication with the memory structure, the one or more control circuits including a temperature sensor configured to sense a temperature on the semiconductor die, the one or more control circuits configured to:
• apply a voltage to a bit line connected to a victim NAND string while applying voltages to control gates of memory cells on the victim NAND strings to generate a current through the NAND channel of the victim NAND string to heat a region of the memory structure having target NAND strings;
• and
• regulate the voltage to the bit line responsive to the temperature on the semiconductor die to maintain temperature on the semiconductor die within a target range of temperatures for a period of time to remove trapped charges from the tunneling layers of the memory cells on the target NAND strings.