Thermal regulation for solid state memory
AssigneeSkyera, LLC
InventorDmitry Vyshetsky
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A chassis for a storage system contains a digital chamber that houses conventional electronic components and a thermal chamber that houses non-volatile solid state memory such as flash memory. A temperature regulating system monitors temperature within the digital chamber to keep the components therein below their maximum junction temperature. The temperature regulating system tightly regulates the temperature of solid state memory chips to within a nominal operating temperature range selected to extend the lifetime and/or improve the endurance and reliability of the solid state memory. The temperature regulating system may regulate different memory chips to different nominal temperatures based on the operations being performed and lifetime factors for the memory chips including current health and prior use.
Claims20
A storage system housed within a chassis, the storage system comprising:
- a thermal chamber configured within the chassis and comprising:
- a plurality of solid state storage devices configured to store data and provide access to stored data;
- a plurality of temperature sensors thermally coupled to the plurality of solid state storage devices;
- and
- a cooling system configured to remove heat from the thermal chamber;
- a heating system comprising a plurality of heating elements, wherein one of the plurality of heating elements is configured to add heat locally to a subset of the plurality of solid state storage devices;
- and
- a temperature regulating system configured to cause the cooling system to remove heat from the thermal chamber and simultaneously cause the one of the plurality of heating elements to add heat locally to the subset of the plurality of solid state storage devices to maintain each of the solid state storage devices within a fixed range of temperature in a presence of a temperature gradient within the thermal chamber due to a location of the cooling system, based on an operating condition and a projected lifetime of a solid state storage device in the operating condition sensitive to temperatures outside a fixed range.
A method comprising:
- receiving, at a temperature regulating system, a temperature reading from a plurality of temperature sensors thermally coupled to a plurality of solid state storage devices in a thermal chamber;
- comparing, by the temperature regulating system, the temperature reading with a nominal temperature range of the plurality of solid state storage devices;
- and
- causing, by the temperature regulating system, a cooling system to remove heat from the thermal chamber, and simultaneously causing one of a plurality of heating elements to add heat locally to the plurality of solid state storage devices, thereby maintaining each of the solid state storage devices within a fixed range of temperature in a presence of a temperature gradient within the thermal chamber due to a location of the cooling system, based on an operating condition and a projected lifetime of a solid state storage device in the operating condition sensitive to temperatures outside a fixed range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.