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:
Apr. 07, 2015
Filed:
Sep. 05, 2012
Ayako Yamano, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Teruo Takagiwa, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Koichi Fukuda, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Hitoshi Shiga, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Osamu Nagao, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Ayako Yamano, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Teruo Takagiwa, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Koichi Fukuda, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Hitoshi Shiga, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Osamu Nagao, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of blocks in a memory cell, each of the blocks acting as an erasure unit of data, the block including a plurality of pages, each of the pages including a plurality of memory cell transistors, each of the memory cell transistors being configured to be an erasure state or a first retention state based on a threshold voltage of the memory cell transistor, and a controller searching data in the block with respect to, writing a first flag denoting effective into a prescribed page of the block with the erasure state, and writing the first flag denoting non-effective into a prescribed page of the block with the first retention state, reading out the prescribed page of the block with the first retention state, and determining that the block is writable when the first flag denotes effective.