Micron Technology Incorporated

Pin-Chou Chiang

Theodore T Pekny

Michele Piccardi

A system and a memory device including a driver circuit, to perform first operations including driving a resistor-capacitor (RC) sensor circuit of an electronic device to a drive voltage using a representative copy of a current that drives an electronic circuit line of the electronic device. The system and memory device including the RC sensor circuit, coupled to the driver circuit, to perform second operations including determining a first sample voltage by sampling a first representative voltage generated at the RC sensor circuit, and determining a second sample voltage by sampling a second representative voltage generated at the RC sensor circuit. The ratio of the first sample voltage and the second sample voltage is indicative of an RC time constant of the electronic circuit line.

Extracting the resistor-capacitor time constant of an electronic circuit line

Methods of configuring a memory might include characterizing a read window budget for a programming operation of the memory as a function of a programming step voltage for a plurality of memory cell ages, determining a respective programming step voltage for each memory cell age of the plurality of memory cell ages in response to a desired read window budget, and storing data to the memory indicative of the determined respective programming step voltage for each memory cell age of the plurality of memory cell ages.

Methods of configuring a memory

Methods of operating a memory, and memory configured to perform similar methods, may include determining a memory cell age of a plurality of memory cells, determining a desired programming step voltage for programming memory cells having the determined memory cell age, and performing a programming operation on the plurality of memory cells using the desired programming step voltage corresponding to the determined memory cell age. Methods may further include configuring a memory, including characterizing a read window budget for a programming operation of the memory as a function of a programming step voltage for a plurality of memory cell ages.

Apparatus and methods for programming memory cells responsive to an indication of age of the memory cells

A resistor-capacitor (RC) sensor circuit includes an integration capacitor configured to integrate a representative copy of a current that drives an electronic circuit line. The integration capacitor is configured to integrate over a first time period to generate a first representative voltage and over a second time period to generate a second representative voltage. The RC sensor circuit includes a sampling circuit coupled to the integration capacitor and configured to sample the first representative voltage and the second representative voltage. A ratio of the first sampled voltage and the second sampled voltage is indicative of an RC time constant of the electronic circuit line.

Resistor-capacitor sensor circuit

A resistor-capacitor (RC) sensor circuit of an electronic device is driven to a drive voltage using a representative copy of a current that drives an electronic circuit line of the electronic device. The RC sensor circuit is to sample voltages that are indicative of an RC time constant of the electronic circuit line. A first sample voltage is determined by sampling a first representative voltage generated at the RC sensor circuit by driving the RC sensor circuit with the representative copy of the current over a first time period. A second sample voltage is determined by sampling a second representative voltage generated at the RC sensor circuit by driving the RC sensor circuit with the representative copy of the current over a second time period. A ratio of the first sample voltage and the second sample voltage is indicative of the RC time constant of the electronic circuit line.

Methods of operating a memory, and memory configured to perform similar methods, may include applying a first plurality of programming pulses to control gates of a plurality of memory cells during a particular programming operation and applying a second plurality of programming pulses to the control gates of the plurality of memory cells during a subsequent programming operation, wherein the first plurality of programming pulses have a particular slope, and wherein the second plurality of programming pulses have a different slope less than the particular slope. Methods of configuring a memory may include characterizing a read window budget for a programming operation of the memory as a function of a programming step voltage for a plurality of memory cell ages.

The RC sensor circuit includes a driver circuit that includes an output configured to drive the RC sensor circuit to a drive voltage using a representative copy of a current that drives an electronic circuit line. The RC sensor circuit includes an integration capacitor. The integration capacitor is configured to integrate the representative copy of the current over a first time period to generate a first representative voltage and over a second time period to generate a second representative voltage. The RC sensor circuit includes a sampling circuit coupled to the integration capacitor. The sampling circuit is configured to determine a first sample voltage by sampling the first representative voltage and a second sample voltage by sampling the second representative voltage. A ratio of the first sample voltage and the second sample voltage is indicative of an RC time constant of the electronic circuit line.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Pin-Chou Chiang