One-ladder read of memory cells coarsely programmed via interleaved two-pass data programming techniques

Abstract

A memory system to store multiple bits of data in a memory cell. A memory device coarsely programs a threshold voltage of the memory cell to a first level representative of a combination of bit values according to a mapping between bit value combinations and threshold levels. The threshold levels are partitioned into groups, each containing a subset of the threshold levels and having associated read voltages separating threshold levels in the subset. A group identification of a first group, among the groups, containing the first level is determined for the memory cell. The memory device applies read voltages of different groups, interleaved in an increasing order in a sequence, to read the memory cell when a read voltage applied is associated with the first group. The data bits read back from the memory cell are used to finely program the threshold voltage of the memory cell.