Sandisk Corporation

Kla Tencor Corporation

Sandisk Technologies Inc.

Sergey Yudin

Bahman Qawami

Farshid Sabet-Sharghi

Robert C Chang

Amin Samsavar

Thomas Harding McWaid

Methods and apparatus for enabling a power up process of a non-volatile memory to occur efficiently are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for utilizing a memory system that has a non-volatile memory with at least one reserved memory area includes providing power to the memory system, initializing the non-volatile memory, and writing a first signature into the reserved memory area. The first signature is arranged to indicate that the memory system was successfully initialized. In one embodiment, the method also includes executing a power down process on the memory system, and writing a second signature into the reserved memory area which indicates that the power down process has been executed.

Power management block for use in a non-volatile memory system

An acoustic sensor used with a first sensor (such as a profilometer, scanning probe microscope or the like) allows for the positioning of the first sensor with respect to the sample. The acoustic sensor has a greater range than a profilometer or a scanning probe microscope, and a relatively quick response time, which allows it to be an effective proximity detector. Additionally, the acoustic sensor is not affected by the material of the sample's surface layer.

Acoustic sensor as proximity detector

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Sergey Yudin