Sandisk Technologies Inc.

Dandan Yi

Liang Li

Xuan Tian

Vincent Yin

Jojo Xing

Alan David Bennett

Yongke Sun

A memory apparatus and method of operation are provided. The apparatus includes memory cells each connected to word lines and disposed in memory holes. The memory holes are arranged in rows comprising strings which are grouped into blocks comprising a first plane and a second plane. A control means is configured to program memory cells of the first plane and the second plane connected to one of the word lines using iterations of a program operation. The control means terminates programming of the first plane prior to completing programming of the first plane in response to determining the first plane programs slower than the second plane by a predetermined number of the iterations of the program operation. The control means adjusts the predetermined number of the iterations based on an additional verify iteration performed on at least some of the memory cells beyond the iterations of the program operation.

Smart early program termination algorithm for neighbor plane disturb countermeasure

In addition to word line related short circuits within the blocks of the array structure of a non-volatile memory device, such as NAND memory, word line related shorts can also occur in the routing for supplying the word lines of the memory blocks. Depending on the layout of the routing, some shorts for the word lines associated with one block can affect other blocks of the memory array. In particular, if the routing of a pair of adjacent local supply lines are adjacent to a global supply line, a short between the pair of adjacent local supply lines for one block can lead, through the global supply line, to defects in another of the block. Techniques are presented for detecting these layout related problematic word lines.

Non-volatile memory with layout adaptive problematic word line detection

In some situations, a leak on a wordline may be a localized problem that causes data loss in a block that contains the wordline. In other situations, such as when the leak occurs near a peripheral wordline routing area, the leak can affect the entire memory die. The storage system provided herein has a fatal wordline leak detector that determines the type of leak and, accordingly, whether just the block should be retired or whether related blocks should be retired.

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Shanghai, China

Dandan Yi