Micron Technology Incorporated

Intel Corporation

Shafqat Ahmed

Krishna Kumar Parat

Khaled Hasnat

Akira Goda

Aaron S Yip

Mark Alan Helm

Pranav Kalavade

Andrew Bicksler

Prashant S Damle

George J Korsh

Ed Nabighian

Nicole Meier Chang

John Nugent

Tomoharu Tanaka

Richard M Fastow

Kiran Pangal

Chang Wan Ha

Derchang Kau

Shankar Natarajan

Chuan Lin

Henry Chao

Chee Law

Apparatus and methods are disclosed, such as an apparatus that includes a string of charge storage devices associated with a pillar (e.g., of semiconductor material), a source gate device, and a source select device coupled between the source gate device and the string. Additional apparatus and methods are described.

Apparatus and methods including source gates

A nonvolatile memory supports a standby state where the memory is ready to receive an access command to execute, and a deep power down state where the memory ignores all access commands. The memory can transition from the standby state to the deep power down state in response to a threshold amount of time in the standby state. Thus, the memory can enter the standby state after a command and then transition to the deep power down state after the threshold time.

Reducing power consumption in nonvolatile memory due to standby leakage current

A single memory cell array is formed to maintain current delivery and mitigate current spike through the deposition of resistive materials in two or more regions of the array, including at least one region of memory cells nearer to contacts on the conductive lines and at least one region of memory cells farther from the contacts, where the contacts connect the conductive lines to the current source. Higher and lower resistive materials are introduced during the formation of the memory cells and the conductive lines based on the boundaries and dimensions of the two or more regions using a photo mask. Multiple memory cell arrays formed to maintain current delivery and mitigate current spike can be arranged into a three-dimensional memory cell array. The regions of memory cells in each memory cell array can vary depending on resistance at the contacts on the conductive lines that provide access to the memory cells, where the resistance can vary from one memory cell array to another.

Current delivery and spike mitigation in a memory cell array

Memory devices might be configured to perform methods including reading a first page of memory cells and flag data wherein the flag data indicates whether a second page of memory cells adjacent to the first page is programmed, and determining from the flag data whether to re-read the first page of memory cells with an adjusted read voltage; performing a sense operation on memory cells coupled to first data lines of a first array of memory cells and memory cells coupled to data lines of a second array of memory cells, and determining a program indication of memory cells coupled to second data lines from the sense operation performed on the memory cells coupled to the data lines of the second array of memory cells; and/or programming memory cells coupled to first data lines in a first array of memory cells, and programming memory cells coupled to second data lines in the first array of memory cells while programming memory cells coupled to data lines in a second array of memory cells with flag data indicative of the memory cells coupled to the second data lines in the first array of memory cells being programmed.

Sense flags in a memory device

Methods for programming sense flags may include programming memory cells coupled to first data lines in a main memory array, and programming memory cells coupled to second data lines in the main memory array while programming memory cells coupled to data lines in a flag memory array with flag data indicative of the memory cells coupled to the second data lines being programmed. Methods for sensing flags may include performing a sense operation on memory cells coupled to first data lines of a main memory array and memory cells coupled to data lines of a flag memory array, and determining a program indication of memory cells coupled to second data lines of the main memory array from the sense operation performed on the memory cells coupled to the data lines of the flag memory array.

In a memory device, odd bit lines of a flag memory cell array are connected with a short circuit to a dynamic data cache. Even bit lines of the flag memory cell array are disconnected from the dynamic data cache. When an even page of a main memory cell array is read, the odd flag memory cells, comprising flag data, are read at the same time so that it can be determined whether the odd page of the main memory cell array has been programmed. If the flag data indicates that the odd page has not been programmed, threshold voltage windows can be adjusted to determine the states of the sensed even memory cell page.

Sense operation flags in a memory device

Memory devices, methods for programming sense flags, methods for sensing flags, and memory systems are disclosed. In one such memory device, the odd bit lines of a flag memory cell array are connected with a short circuit to a dynamic data cache. The even bit lines of the flag memory cell array are disconnected from the dynamic data cache. When an even page of a main memory cell array is read, the odd flag memory cells, comprising flag data, are read at the same time so that it can be determined whether the odd page of the main memory cell array has been programmed. If the flag data indicates that the odd page has not been programmed, threshold voltage windows can be adjusted to determine the states of the sensed even memory cell page.

Methods for programming a memory device, memory devices configured to perform the disclosed programming methods, and memory systems having a memory device configured to perform the disclosed programming methods, for example, are provided. According to at least one such method, multiple independent semiconductor well regions each having strings of memory cells are independently biased during a programming operation performed on a memory device. Reduced charge leakage may be realized during a programming operation in response to independent well biasing methods.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Shafqat Ahmed