Method and system for enhancing the endurance of memory cells
AssigneeAtmel Corporation
InventorsJohnny Chan, Philip S. Ng, Tinwai Wong
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An integrated circuit device includes a plurality of non-volatile memory cells associated with a plurality of flag cells storing managing data. The managing data of the flag cells forms a data set. The data set is utilized to determine to which memory cell of the plurality of memory cells to write new data and from which of the memory cells to read currently stored data. The data set is changed to a different data set whenever a new value is written to a designated memory cell to indicate an alternate memory cell to be written to next and an alternate memory cell to be read from next. The data set may be changed by alternately writing a new value to a different flag cell in each successive change of the data set.
Claims22
A storage system comprising:
- a) a memory cell;
- b) an alternate memory cell;
- c) a plurality of flag cells, at least one of the plurality of flag cells associated with the memory cell and at least another of the plurality of flag cells associated with the alternate memory cell, the plurality of flag cells configured to store a current data set, the current data set indicating which of the memory cell or the alternate memory cell to write a new value to and which of the memory cell or the alternate memory cell to read a stored value from;
- and
- d) logic control circuitry configured to select a next current data set to be stored in the plurality of flag cells after each successive write/erase cycle.
A method comprising:
- a) loading a current data set into a plurality of flag cells associated with a plurality of memory cells;
- b) utilizing the current data set to determine which one of the plurality of the memory cells to read a stored data value from and which other of the plurality of the memory cells to write a new data value to;
- c) determining a next current data set after a write/erase cycle;
- d) loading the next current data set into the plurality of flag cells.
A storage system comprising:
- a) a memory cell;
- b) an alternate memory cell;
- c) a plurality of flag cells, at least one of the plurality of flag cells associated with the memory cell and at least another of the plurality of flag cells associated with the alternate memory cell, the plurality of flag cells configured to store a current data set, the current data set indicating which of the memory cell or the alternate memory to write a new value to and which of the memory cell or the alternate memory cell to read a currently stored value from, the memory cell and the alternate memory cell configured to function as a single larger memory cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.