Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Yesin Ryu

Jun Jin Kong

Sungchul Park

Junjin Kong

Jaeyoun Youn

Sunggi Ahn

Kijun Lee

Sanguhn Cha

Yoonna Oh

Myungkyu Lee

Sunghye Cho

Hyunki Kim

Yeonggeol Song

Hyungi Kim

Eunae Lee

Sukhan Lee

Junhyung Kim

Sungrae Kim

Kiheung Kim

Youngcheon Kwon

Namsung Kim

Taewon Kim

Jihyun Choi

Chanki Kim

Sung-Rae Kim

Hoon Shin

A memory device including: a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells disposed at intersections of wordlines and bitlines; an error correction circuit configured to read data from the memory cell array and to correct an error in the read data; and an error check and scrub (ECS) circuit configured to perform a scrubbing operation on the memory cell array, wherein the ECS circuit includes: a first register configured to store an error address obtained in the scrubbing operation; and a second register configured to store a page offline address received from an external device.

Memory device, a controller for controlling the same, a memory system including the same, and an operating method of the same

A semiconductor memory device includes a buffer die and a plurality of memory dies. Each of the memory dies includes a memory cell array, an error correction code (ECC) engine and a test circuit. The memory cell array includes a plurality of memory cell rows, each including a plurality of volatile memory cells. The test circuit, in a test mode, generates a test syndrome and an expected decoding status flag indicating error status of the test syndrome, receives test parity data generated by the ECC engine based on the test syndrome and a decoding status flag indicating error status of the test parity data, and determines whether the ECC engine has a defect based on comparison of the test syndrome and the test parity data and a comparison of the expected decoding status flag and the decoding status flag.

Semiconductor memory devices with ECC engine defect determination based on test syndrome, test parity, expected decoding status and received decoding status

A memory device includes a row decoder, a column decoder, and a repair control circuit, which is configured to: (i) compare a row address with a stored failed row address, (ii) compare a column address with a stored failed column address, (iii) control the row decoder to activate the at least one of a plurality of redundancy word lines when the row address corresponds to the failed row address, and (iv) control the column decoder to activate at least one of a plurality of redundancy bit lines when the column address corresponds to the failed column address. The repair control circuit varies a repair unit according to an address input during a repair operation.

Memory devices having variable repair units therein and methods of repairing same

A method for reading data from a memory includes; reading a codeword from the memory cells, correcting the errors when a number of errors in the codeword is less than a maximum number of correctable errors, correcting the errors when the number of errors in the codeword is equal to the maximum number of correctable errors and the errors correspond to a same sub-word line, and outputting signal indicating that the errors are an uncorrectable error when the number of errors of the codeword is equal to the maximum number of correctable errors and the errors correspond to different sub-word lines.

Memory device and method reading data

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array, an error correction code (ECC) circuit and a control logic circuit to control the ECC circuit. The memory cell array includes memory cells and a normal cell region and a parity cell region The ECC circuit, in a normal mode, receives a main data, performs an ECC encoding on the main data to generate a parity data and stores the main data and the parity data in the normal cell region and the parity cell region. The ECC circuit, in a test mode, receives a test data including at least one error bit, stores the test data in one of the normal cell region and the parity cell region and performs an ECC decoding on the test data and one of the main data and the parity data to provide a decoding result data to an external device.

Semiconductor memory devices and memory systems including the same

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array, a bit-line switch, a block switch, and a column decoder. The memory cell array includes memory blocks coupled to at least one word-line and each of the memory blocks includes memory cells. The bit-line switch is connected between a first half local input/output (I/O) line of a first memory block and a second half local I/O line of the first memory block. The block switch is connected between the second half local I/O line of the first memory block and a first half local I/O line of a second memory block adjacent to the first memory block. The column decoder includes a repair circuit that controls connections by applying a first switching control signal to the bit-line switch and a second switching control signal to the block switch.

Semiconductor memory device capable of increasing flexibility of a column repair operation

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array, an error correction code (ECC) engine, a scrubbing control circuit and a control logic circuit. The memory cell array includes memory cell rows, and each of the memory cell rows including volatile memory cells. The scrubbing control circuit generates scrubbing addresses for performing a normal scrubbing operation on the memory cell rows with a first period based on refresh row addresses for refreshing the memory cell rows. The control logic circuit controls the ECC engine the scrubbing control circuit to distribute a scrubbing operation on weak codewords dynamically within the refresh operation such that a dynamic allocated scrubbing (DAS) operation is performed with a second period smaller than the first period. An error bit is detected in each of the weak codewords during the normal scrubbing operation or normal read operation on at least one of the memory cell rows.

Semiconductor memory devices and methods of operating semiconductor memory devices

An error correction circuit includes an error correction code (ECC) memory and an ECC engine. The ECC memory stores an ECC, which is at least partially represented by a generation matrix. The ECC engine generates parity data based on main data using the ECC, and detects and/or corrects at least one error bit in the main data read from the memory cell array using the parity data. The main data includes a plurality of data bits divided into a plurality of sub data units. The ECC includes a plurality of column vectors divided into a plurality of code groups corresponding to the sub data units. The column vectors have elements configured to gather a mis-corrected bit and multiple error bits in one symbol and the mis-corrected bit is generated due to the multiple error bits in the main data.

Semiconductor memory devices having enhanced error correction circuits therein

A semiconductor memory device including: a buffer die; memory dies stacked on the buffer die; and TSVs, at least one of the memory dies includes: a memory cell array; an error correction code (ECC) engine; an error information register; and a control logic circuit configured to control the ECC engine to perform a read-modify-write operation, wherein the control logic circuit is configured to: record, in the error information register, a first address associated with a first codeword based on the an generation signal and a first syndrome obtained by an ECC decoding; and determine an error attribute of the first codeword based on a change of the first syndrome, recorded in the error information register, based on a plurality of read-modify-write operations.

Semiconductor memory devices

A semiconductor memory device and a memory system including the same are provided. The semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array including memory blocks, a local parity memory block, and a register block. The memory blocks respectively store pieces of partial local data in response to a plurality of column selection signals, or a first partial global parity in response to a global parity column selection signal. The local parity memory block stores local parities of local data in response to the plurality of column selection signals, or a second partial global parity in response to the global parity column selection signal. The register block generates a global parity including the first partial global parities and the second partial global parity. Each piece of local data includes the partial local data, and the global parity is a parity of the pieces of local data and the local parities.

Semiconductor memory device, and memory system having the same

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array and an interface circuit including an error correction code (ECC) engine. The memory cell array includes a plurality of volatile memory cells, a normal cell region and a parity cell region. The interface circuit, in a write operation, receives main data and first parity data from an external device, the first parity data being generated based on a first ECC and stores the main data in the normal cell region and the first parity data in the parity cell region. The interface circuit, in a read operation, performs an ECC decoding on the main data using a second ECC, based on the first parity data to correct a first type of error in the main data. The second ECC has a parity check matrix which is the same as a parity check matrix of the first ECC.

Growing community of inventors

Seoul, South Korea

Yesin Ryu