KR20120077272A - Semiconductor memory device and method of operating the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A semiconductor memory device and an operating method thereof are provided to rapidly read a cam block by storing an address of the cam block with the different plain address and the same block address according to the kind of additional information. CONSTITUTION: A first plane(110) includes cam blocks which stores additional information related to an operation control of a semiconductor memory device. A second plane(120) includes cam blocks for storing new addition information. A control logic unit(140) stores the new additional information by selecting the cam block of the second plain with the same block address as the cam block of the first plain storing the same additional information as the new additional information when the new additional information is required.

Description

Semiconductor memory device and method of operation

The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and a method of operating the same.

Recently, semiconductor memory devices are classified into a single-plane type and a multi-plane type according to the structure of a memory cell array.

The single-plane type includes only one plane composed of a plurality of memory cell blocks, and the multi-plane type includes a plurality of planes each composed of a plurality of memory cell blocks.

In the multi-plane type semiconductor memory device, a multi-program and a multi-read operation may be performed to simultaneously select a memory block of each of a plurality of planes to perform a program or data read. As a result, a semiconductor device of a multi-plane type may have an increased data throughput compared to a single plane type that can only program a page of one memory block.

In the semiconductor memory device, a fuse unit or the like is used to store various additional information required for operation. The additional information includes inherent characteristic values according to characteristics of the memory cell, program pulses used for program operations, erase operations, etc., information on erase pulse values, repair information such as repair information, and the like.

However, the fuse part has a large size, and once the data is stored and the package process is performed, the corresponding data cannot be modified again. Accordingly, a CAM (Content Addressable Memory) cell having the same structure as that of the memory cell is used instead of the fuse part.

When the additional information is stored in the cam cell, it is easy to add additional information even after the packaging process.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor memory device capable of quickly adding additional information and reading a cam block by storing the additional information stored in the cam block in a cam block having different plane addresses and having the same block address according to the type thereof; It provides a method of operation.

A semiconductor memory device according to a feature of the present invention,

A first plane including cam blocks storing additional information related to operation control of the semiconductor memory device; A second plane including cam blocks for storing the additional information when it is newly generated; And when the storage of the new additional information is required, selecting the cam block of the second plane having the same block address as the cam block of the first plane in which the same type of additional information as the new additional information is stored and selecting the new additional information. Control logic for storage.

Method of operating a semiconductor memory device according to an embodiment of the present invention,

Storing additional information related to operation control of the semiconductor memory device generated by the first test operation in different cam blocks according to the type of each additional information; Generating new at least one kind of additional information by a second test operation; And programming the newly generated additional information by selecting a cam block having the same type of additional information as the newly generated additional information and a cam block having a different plane address and a same block address.

The semiconductor memory device and its operation method according to an embodiment of the present invention store the cam block address in the plane address and the block address in the same way according to the type of the additional information, so that the data can be added even if additional information is added. When reading the data of the cam block is easy, the read time due to the new additional information is not increased.

1 shows a semiconductor memory device.
FIG. 2 illustrates the first and second memory cell arrays of FIG. 1.
3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of adding a repair address to a cam block.
4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of adding a repair address of a cam block according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of reading a cam block according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. It is provided to inform you.

1 shows a semiconductor memory device.

Referring to FIG. 1, the semiconductor memory device 100 includes first and second planes P0 (110, P1; 120), a peripheral circuit 130, and a control logic 140.

The first and second planes 110 and 120 may include first and second memory cell arrays 111 and 121 and first and second page buffer groups 112 and 122, respectively.

The first and second memory cell arrays 111 and 121 include a plurality of memory cells. The memory cells are connected to word lines and bit lines.

The first and second page buffer groups 112 and 122 include page buffers connected to one or more bit lines. The page buffers temporarily store data to be programmed in the selected memory cell or read and store data programmed in the selected memory cell.

The peripheral circuit 130 may include circuits for selecting, programming, or erasing the pages of the first to second planes 110 and 120, respectively or simultaneously.

The control logic 140 outputs control signals for controlling the operation of the first and second planes 110 and 120 and the peripheral circuit 130.

The control logic 140 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) in which a power-on reset operation, an algorithm for loading data of the cam block, and the like are stored when the power starts to be input, and the cam block is turned off after the power is turned on. RAM (Random Access Memory) for temporarily storing the data read from.

The ROM is a nonvolatile memory and the RAM is a volatile memory.

The first and second memory cell arrays 111 and 112 of the first and second planes 110 and 120 are configured as follows.

FIG. 2 illustrates the first and second memory cell arrays of FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 2, the first and second memory cell arrays 111 and 121 include first and second cam block portions 111a and 121a and first and second memory block portions 111b and 121b, respectively. do.

The first cam block portion 111a includes first to third cam blocks, and the second cam block portion 121a includes fourth to sixth cam blocks.

The first to sixth camblocks include cam cells for storing additional information.

The first and second memory block units include a plurality of memory blocks. Each memory block includes memory cells for data storage.

The memory cell and the cam cell have the same structure and characteristics.

The first cam block and the fourth cam block have different plane addresses, and the block addresses are the same. The second cam block and the fifth cam block also have different plane addresses and the same block address.

The third cam block and the sixth cam block also have different plane addresses and the same block address.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first cam block becomes option information necessary for performing operation control, and the repair address is stored in the second cam block. Bad block information is stored in the third cam block.

In addition, it is assumed that the fourth to sixth camblocks are in a state where data is not stored.

When using the first to sixth cam blocks as described above, it is possible to add a repair address or bad block information newly generated while the semiconductor memory device 100 is operating.

There are several ways to add newly generated repair address or bad block information.

3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of adding a repair address to a cam block.

Referring to FIG. 3, the semiconductor memory device 100 checks a failed column and performs a repair through a test before executing the package. The repair address information is stored in the second cam block. Hereinafter, the repair address stored in the second cam block is called a first repair address.

Failed columns can also be generated after the package.

Therefore, a test is performed to confirm the failed column after the package (S301), and the repair of the failed column is performed (S303). A new repair address is generated by the repair operation in step S303. Hereinafter, the new repair address is called a second repair address.

In order to add the second repair address, first, the first repair address stored in the second cam block is read (S305). At this time, the read first repair address information is stored in a separate storage means. The separate storage means may be a register in the semiconductor memory device 100 or may be storage means connected to the outside.

After the first repair address is read, the second cam block is erased (S307). The stored first repair address and the second repair address are stored in the second cam block (S309).

When the repair address is added as described above, the second cam block needs to be erased. If the additional operation of the repair address is repeatedly performed, the second camblock may be less reliable because the number of erase / program cycles is high.

Therefore, in order to solve this problem, a method of storing the second repair address in a new cam block may be used.

That is, the second repair address is stored by selecting one of the fourth to sixth cam blocks that are not in use yet. With this method, there is no need to erase the second camblock.

However, when reading the data of the cam block at power-on, the read operation of the fourth cam block should be added to the existing operation of reading only the data of the first to third cam blocks. Accordingly, the time taken to read data of the camblocks also increases.

In an embodiment of the present invention, in order to solve the above problems, the second repair address is stored as follows.

4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of adding a repair address of a cam block according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, after the package, a fail column test is performed (S401), and a fail column is repaired (S403). As a result, a second repair address is generated.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the second repair address is not stored in the second cam block.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the second cam block in which the first repair address is stored is different from the plane address, and the second repair address is stored in the fifth cam block having the same block address (S405).

Even if bad block information to be added is generated by performing a test on the bad block, a new bad block is added to the sixth cam block having the same block address and different from the third cam block in which the existing bad block information is stored. Store block information.

In this manner, new additional information such as a repair address and a bad block is stored in a cam block having the same block address according to the type.

Subsequently, when the cam block is read, data of the cam block having the same block address is simultaneously read using a multi-plane read operation.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of reading a cam block according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Before describing FIG. 5, option information is stored in the first cam block of the semiconductor memory device 100 of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the first and second cam blocks are stored in the second cam block and the fifth cam block. 2 Repair address is stored. The second repair address stored in the fifth camblock is a repair address stored after the package as described above with reference to FIG. 4.

Bad block information is stored in the third cam block.

Referring to FIG. 5, when power is input to the semiconductor memory device 100, a power on reset operation is preferentially performed (S501). The power on reset operation is an initialization operation for the operation of the semiconductor memory device 100.

The control logic 140 outputs a control signal for performing the power on reset operation according to the power on reset operation algorithm stored in the ROM, and starts reading the cam block by the data read algorithm of the cam block.

First, the first cam block is selected to read data (S503). The operation of reading data is the same as reading data of a general memory cell, and thus a detailed description thereof is omitted.

The read data is temporarily stored in the RAM of the control logic 140. The data stored in RAM is retained until power is lost again.

Then, multi-plane reading for simultaneously reading the second cam block and the fifth cam block is performed (S507). This is possible because the second and fifth camblocks have different plane addresses but the same block addresses.

For this purpose, the control logic 140 needs to know the information that the second repair address is stored in the fifth cam block, and the multi-plane read should be performed when the cam read is performed. Alternatively, multi-plane reading may be performed in step S503 of reading the first cam block without using such information. If multi-plane reading is performed when the first cam block is read, the data of the fourth cam block is also read out. However, since the fourth camblock is in the erased state, there is no option information additionally stored in the RAM other than the data read from the first camblock.

After the multi-plane reading is performed on the second and fifth camblocks, the read first and second repair addresses are stored in the RAM (S509).

Next, reading of the third cam block is also performed (S511). Multiplane readout may also be performed when reading out the third camblock. In this case, data is simultaneously read from the third cam block and the sixth cam block. However, since no bad block information is additionally stored in the sixth cam block, only the bad block information read from the third cam block is stored in the RAM (S513).

When the reading of the camblocks is completed and data storage is completed in the RAM, the control logic 140 is in a waiting state for waiting for command input (S515).

Subsequent program, read or erase commands are input to the control logic 140 by using the algorithm stored in the ROM and the additional information stored in the RAM, and the first and second planes 110 and 120 and the peripheral circuit. The operation of the 130 is controlled.

In addition, as described above, when additional information is generated for the bad block, when storing the data in the sixth cam block and subsequently reading the data of the cam block, the multi-plane read capable of simultaneously reading the third and sixth cam blocks. By performing the above, the data read time of the cam block is not greatly increased.

The first to third camblocks in which additional information is stored before the package by the above method do not need to be erased to add information after the package, and the read time is greatly increased by the multi-plane read command even when reading the data of the camblock. May not increase.

Although the technical spirit of the present invention described above has been described in detail in a preferred embodiment, it should be noted that the above-described embodiment is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. In addition, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various embodiments of the present invention are possible within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

100: semiconductor memory device
110, 120: first and second plane
130: peripheral circuit
140: control logic

Claims (5)

A first plane including cam blocks storing additional information related to operation control of the semiconductor memory device;
A second plane including cam blocks for storing the additional information when it is newly generated; And
When storage of new additional information is required, the new additional information is stored by selecting a cam block of the second plane having the same block address as the cam block of the first plane in which the same type of additional information and the same type of additional information are stored. A semiconductor memory device comprising a control logic for. The method of claim 1,
When the control logic reads the data of the cam block, the multi-plane read operation is performed to control reading of the cam block having the same block address in the first and second planes at the same time. Storing additional information related to operation control of the semiconductor memory device generated by the first test operation in different cam blocks according to the type of each additional information;
Generating new at least one kind of additional information by a second test operation; And
And selecting the cam block having the same type of additional information as the newly generated additional information and the cam block having a different plane address and having the same block address, and programming the newly generated additional information. The method of claim 3, wherein
After programming the newly generated additional information,
And reading out the cam block data by newly inputting power to the semiconductor memory device, performing a multi-plane read to simultaneously perform a read operation on a cam block having a different plane address and the same block address. How the device works. The method of claim 3, wherein
And a single plane reading is performed when reading the additional information of the type without the newly generated additional information.

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