The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 23, 2014
Filed:
Jan. 09, 2014
Applicant:
Micron Technology, Inc., Boise, ID (US);
Inventor:
Shuba Swaminathan, San Anselmo, CA (US);
Assignee:
Micron Technology, Inc., Boise, ID (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 12/00 (2006.01); G06F 12/02 (2006.01); G11C 16/34 (2006.01); G11C 16/16 (2006.01); G11C 16/10 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 16/107 (2013.01); G06F 12/0246 (2013.01); G11C 16/3427 (2013.01); G11C 16/3431 (2013.01); G11C 16/3418 (2013.01); G11C 16/16 (2013.01);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for refreshing data in a flash memory device is disclosed. A counter is maintained for each memory block. When a memory block is erased, the counter for that erase block is set to a predetermined value while the remaining counters for other erase blocks are changed. When a memory block counter reaches a predetermined threshold value, the associated memory block is refreshed.