Soft errors handling in EEPROM devices

Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery – Pulse or data error handling – Memory testing

Reexamination Certificate

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Reexamination Certificate

active

07437631

ABSTRACT:
Soft errors occur during normal use of a solid-state memory such as EEPROM or Flash EEPROM. A soft error results from the programmed threshold voltage of a memory cell being drifted from its originally intended level. The error is initially not readily detected during normal read until the cumulative drift becomes so severe that it develops into a hard error. Data could be lost if enough of these hard errors swamps available error correction codes in the memory. A memory device and techniques therefor are capable of detecting these drifts and substantially maintaining the threshold voltage of each memory cell to its intended level throughout the use of the memory device, thereby resisting the development of soft errors into hard errors.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4139911 (1979-02-01), Sciulli et al.
patent: 4218764 (1980-08-01), Furuta et al.
patent: 4253059 (1981-02-01), Bell et al.
patent: 4460982 (1984-07-01), Gee et al.
patent: 4612630 (1986-09-01), Rosier
patent: 4694454 (1987-09-01), Matsuura
patent: 4703196 (1987-10-01), Arakawa
patent: 4703453 (1987-10-01), Shinoda et al.
patent: 4733394 (1988-03-01), Giebel
patent: 4763305 (1988-08-01), Kuo
patent: 4779272 (1988-10-01), Kohda et al.
patent: 4799195 (1989-01-01), Iwahashi et al.
patent: 4809231 (1989-02-01), Shannon et al.
patent: 4827450 (1989-05-01), Kowalski
patent: 4937787 (1990-06-01), Kobatake
patent: 4962322 (1990-10-01), Chapman
patent: 4964079 (1990-10-01), Devin
patent: 4975883 (1990-12-01), Baker et al.
patent: 5043940 (1991-08-01), Harari
patent: 5052002 (1991-09-01), Tanagawa
patent: 5065364 (1991-11-01), Atwood et al.
patent: 5070032 (1991-12-01), Yuan et al.
patent: 5095344 (1992-03-01), Harari
patent: 5119330 (1992-06-01), Tanagawa
patent: 5122985 (1992-06-01), Santin
patent: 5132928 (1992-07-01), Hayashikoshi et al.
patent: 5132935 (1992-07-01), Ashmore, Jr.
patent: 5151906 (1992-09-01), Sawada
patent: 5157629 (1992-10-01), Sato et al.
patent: 5172338 (1992-12-01), Mehrotra et al.
patent: 5172339 (1992-12-01), Noguchi et al.
patent: 5200922 (1993-04-01), Rao
patent: 5200959 (1993-04-01), Gross et al.
patent: 5239505 (1993-08-01), Fazio et al.
patent: 5262984 (1993-11-01), Noguchi et al.
patent: 5263032 (1993-11-01), Porter et al.
patent: 5270551 (1993-12-01), Kamimura et al.
patent: 5270979 (1993-12-01), Harari et al.
patent: 5278794 (1994-01-01), Tanaka et al.
patent: 5313421 (1994-05-01), Guterman et al.
patent: 5313427 (1994-05-01), Schreck et al.
patent: 5315541 (1994-05-01), Harari et al.
patent: 5321655 (1994-06-01), Iwahashi et al.
patent: 5327383 (1994-07-01), Merchant et al.
patent: 5335198 (1994-08-01), Van Buskirk et al.
patent: 5341334 (1994-08-01), Maruyama
patent: 5343063 (1994-08-01), Yuan et al.
patent: 5347489 (1994-09-01), Merchant et al.
patent: 5365486 (1994-11-01), Schreck
patent: 5377147 (1994-12-01), Merchant et al.
patent: 5394359 (1995-02-01), Kowalski
patent: 5404485 (1995-04-01), Ban
patent: 5465236 (1995-11-01), Naruke
patent: 5475693 (1995-12-01), Christopherson et al.
patent: 5504760 (1996-04-01), Harari et al.
patent: 5523972 (1996-06-01), Rashid et al.
patent: 5532962 (1996-07-01), Auclair et al.
patent: 5570315 (1996-10-01), Tanaka et al.
patent: 5583812 (1996-12-01), Harari
patent: 5621682 (1997-04-01), Tanzawa et al.
patent: 5648934 (1997-07-01), O'Toole
patent: 5652720 (1997-07-01), Aulas et al.
patent: 5657332 (1997-08-01), Auclair et al.
patent: 5661053 (1997-08-01), Yuan
patent: 5675537 (1997-10-01), Bill et al.
patent: 5689465 (1997-11-01), Sukegawa et al.
patent: 5699297 (1997-12-01), Yamazaki et al.
patent: 5703506 (1997-12-01), Shook et al.
patent: 5712815 (1998-01-01), Bill et al.
patent: 5717632 (1998-02-01), Richart et al.
patent: 5751639 (1998-05-01), Ohsawa
patent: 5761125 (1998-06-01), Himeno
patent: 5774397 (1998-06-01), Endoh et al.
patent: 5798968 (1998-08-01), Lee et al.
patent: 5835413 (1998-11-01), Hurter et al.
patent: 5889698 (1999-03-01), Miwa et al.
patent: 5890192 (1999-03-01), Lee et al.
patent: 5905673 (1999-05-01), Khan
patent: 5909449 (1999-06-01), So et al.
patent: 5930167 (1999-07-01), Lee et al.
patent: 5937425 (1999-08-01), Ban
patent: 5963473 (1999-10-01), Norman
patent: 6046935 (2000-04-01), Takeuchi et al.
patent: 6145051 (2000-11-01), Estakhri et al.
patent: 6151246 (2000-11-01), So et al.
patent: 6199139 (2001-03-01), Katayama et al.
patent: 6222762 (2001-04-01), Guterman et al.
patent: 6345001 (2002-02-01), Mokhlesi
patent: 6415352 (2002-07-01), Asami et al.
patent: 6426893 (2002-07-01), Conley et al.
patent: 6456528 (2002-09-01), Chen
patent: 6522580 (2003-02-01), Chen et al.
patent: 6560152 (2003-05-01), Cernea
patent: 6567307 (2003-05-01), Estakhri
patent: 6678785 (2004-01-01), Lasser
patent: 6760255 (2004-07-01), Conley et al.
patent: 6763424 (2004-07-01), Conley
patent: 6772274 (2004-08-01), Estakhri
patent: 6925007 (2005-08-01), Harari et al.
patent: 7224607 (2007-05-01), Gonzalez et al.
patent: 2003/0109093 (2003-06-01), Harari et al.
patent: 2006/0233023 (2006-10-01), Lin et al.
patent: 97460009.0 (1997-08-01), None
patent: 2289779 (1995-11-01), None
patent: 8-147988 (1996-06-01), None
patent: 8-279295 (1996-10-01), None
patent: 2000-187992 (2000-07-01), None
patent: WO9012400 (1990-10-01), None
patent: WO 02/058074 (2002-07-01), None
patent: WO 2005/036401 (2005-04-01), None
Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/874,825 mailed Jan. 11, 2007, 12 pages.
ISA/EPO, “Invitation to Pay Additional Fees (including Partial International Search Report)”, mailed on Feb. 21, 2005 in corresponding PCT/US2004/031788, 5 pages.
ISA/EPO, “Notification of Transmittal of the International Search Report and the Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority, or the Declaration,” mailed on May 31, 2005 in corresponding PCT/US2004/031788, 22 pages.
Lee et al., “Error Correction Technique for Mulivalued MOS Memory,”Electronic Letters, vol. 27, No. 15, Jul. 19, 1991, pp. 1321-1323.
Communication Pursuant to Article 96(2) EPC for Application No. 98307184.6 for SanDisk Corporation dated Aug. 8, 2005, 5 pages.
Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/874,825 mailed Jul. 16, 2007, 7 pages.
Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/974,366 mailed Mar. 18, 2008, 6 pages.
Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/974,366 mailed Jul. 5, 2007, 5 pages.
Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/974,366 mailed Apr. 2, 2007, 9 pages.

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Soft errors handling in EEPROM devices does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Soft errors handling in EEPROM devices, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Soft errors handling in EEPROM devices will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3997566

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.