Patent Grant
8004919
The present application relates to memories, and more specifically, the present invention relates to extending the thermal operating range of memories.
Memories used to store computer data may need to be used in environments that may not be suitable for the operation of electronic circuits. In particular, below certain thermal thresholds, electronic circuits may not function properly. Thus, what is needed are systems and methods for extending the thermal operating range of memories.
Apparatus and systems in accordance with this invention are provided for thermal regulation of a memory integrated circuit (“IC”). In a first aspect of the invention, apparatus are provided that include a thermal sensor on a memory IC, and a heating element coupled to the thermal sensor. The heating element is adapted to heat the memory IC in response to a signal from the thermal sensor.
In a second aspect of the invention, a system is provided that includes a non-volatile memory array on an IC. A thermal regulation circuit is integrated on the IC, and is adapted to maintain the memory array at a predefined threshold temperature.
In a third aspect of the invention, apparatus for thermal regulation of a non-volatile three dimensional memory IC are provided. The apparatus include a current output temperature sensor integrated into a non-volatile three dimensional memory IC, and a resistive heating element coupled to the current output temperature sensor. The resistive heating element is adapted to heat the memory IC in response to a signal from the current output temperature sensor indicating that the memory IC is at a temperature below a desired threshold temperature.
In a fourth aspect of the invention, a memory IC is provided that includes a control circuit and a heating element. The control circuit provides a first output signal when a temperature of the memory IC is above a predetermined temperature, and a second output signal when the temperature of the memory IC is below the predetermined temperature. The heating element is adapted to heat the memory IC when the control circuit provides the second output signal.
Other features and aspects of the invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments, the appended claims and the accompanying drawings.
The present invention provides systems and methods for selectively employing on-chip heating elements to extend the thermal operating range of memory integrated circuits, and in particular embodiments, the thermal operating range of non-volatile memories (e.g., non-volatile memory in a USB drive or a compact flash drive). The heating elements may be physically distributed on the memory IC and may be selectively controlled by one or more circuits adapted to receive feedback from thermal sensors that are also distributed on the memory IC. In some embodiments, the heating elements may include resistors or other components adapted to convert electrical energy into thermal energy. Likewise, temperature sensing elements such as temperature transducers (e.g., thermocouples, resistance temperature devices (“RTDs”), thermistors, semiconductor temperature sensors, etc.) may be adapted to convert detected thermal energy into an electrical control signal that activates the heating elements on the IC. As indicated above, the present invention effectively extends the lower thermal operating range of non-volatile memories by heating the memory elements to a operating temperature wherein the memory elements operate reliably. In particular, diodes used in non-volatile memories may be sensitive to low temperatures and the present invention may be particularly useful in compensating for diode characteristics over low temperature ranges.
In some embodiments, the present invention may be used to help overcome or correct certain error conditions. In particular, for example in low power applications, it may not be desirable, necessary, or possible to employ heating elements in a continuous manner. Therefore, in some embodiments, the use of integrated heating elements may be initiated only upon detection of an error condition and/or the availability of unlimited power (e.g., when the memory is used with a line power supply as opposed to a battery power supply). For example, temperature regulation may be employed (e.g., using the heating elements) when a number of read errors exceeds a predefined threshold or during an effort to recover from a “non-correctable” error. By limiting the use of temperature regulation using integrated, on-chip heating elements to error condition recovery and/or error avoidance, power consumption may be conserved and thereby the present invention may facilitate improving memory robustness, particularly in low power and low temperature applications.
Turning now to
In operation, variable resistor 106 is calibrated to a predefined setting that corresponds to a desired threshold temperature. For example, a resistance may be selected so that a voltage that is above the band gap voltage reference VBG 116 is applied to the (−) terminal 108 whenever the current output temperature sensor 102 outputs a current indicating the sensed temperature is below 55° C. and so that a voltage that is below the band gap voltage reference VBG 116 is applied to the (−) terminal 108 whenever the current output temperature sensor 102 outputs a signal indicating the sensed temperature is above 55° C. Thus, in this example, the output 118 biases the gates of transistors 120A, 120B, . . . , 120N on if the voltage applied to the (−) terminal 108 is above the band gap voltage reference VBG 116, indicating that the current output temperature sensor 102 is detecting a temperature less than 55° C. Once the gates of transistors 120A, 120B, . . . , 120N are biased on, current flows through the transistors 120A, 120B, . . . , 120N to the respective resistive heating elements 122A, 122B, . . . , 122N which generate heat until the current output temperature sensor 102 detects that the IC is at a temperature above 55° C. at which point the output of the temperature sensor 102 causes the voltage applied to the (−) terminal 108 of the operational amplifier 110 to fall below the band gap voltage reference VBG 116 which results in the operational amplifier 110 removing the on bias from the gates of transistors 120A, 120B, . . . , 120N and the respective resistive heating elements 122A, 122B, . . . , 122N being shut down. Thus, negative feedback is achieved via the thermal transfer from the resistive heating elements 122A, 122B, . . . , 122N to the current output temperature sensor 102.
The example circuit 100 depicts three or more resistive heating elements 122A, 122B, . . . , 122N being controlled by a single current output temperature sensor 102. Many more heating elements may be included. In some embodiments, many current output temperature sensors distributed across the memory IC may be employed. Such an embodiment facilitates accurate measurement and regulation of different parts of the IC. In addition, in some embodiments, only one or two heating elements may be coupled to a temperature sensor. In embodiments where the operating temperature of 3D memory is being regulated, the heating elements and the temperature sensors may be distributed on the same and/or different planes of the memory arrays.
The example circuit 100 described above used a current output temperature sensor as a thermal transducer. However, one of ordinary skill would recognize that many other alternative types of temperature sensors could be used. For example, voltage output sensors, Brokaw cells, bi-polar junction transistor (“BJT”) based temperature sensors, and discrete sensors such as thermocouples, RTDs, and thermistors. Likewise, alternative heating elements may be employed.
In some embodiments, additional circuitry may be employed to further control the example circuit 100 described above. For example, an enable/disable function 124 (shown in phantom) may be implemented that allows the circuit 100 to be enabled or disabled based on any desired criteria. For example, the temperature sensors 102, the operational amplifier 110, and/or the heating elements 122A-N may not be powered (e.g., voltage supply 104 may be disconnected) to disable the circuit 100 and the temperature sensors 102, the operational amplifier 110, and/or the heating elements 122A-N may be powered (e.g., voltage supply 104 may be connected) to enable the circuit 100. The criteria for enabling or disabling may be implemented in a logic circuit or via a software programmable controller. Examples of the criteria may include whether the memory circuit is to operate in a low power mode and thus, thermal regulation should be disabled; whether the memory circuit is powered by a line power supply and thus, thermal regulation may be enabled; whether an error recovery mode has been initiated and thus, thermal regulation should be enabled; whether a threshold number of read errors has been detected and thus, thermal regulation should be enabled, etc. In some embodiments, control of the enable/disable function 124 may, for example, be implemented as a bit value in a configuration register and/or as a transistor switch operative to connect/disconnect the voltage supply 104 to the circuit 100. Because the heating elements may take time, for example, 10 or more microseconds, to bring the IC into the desired thermal operating range, the circuit 100 may also include a memory access delay indicator that may be used to delay memory access until the desired thermal operating range is achieved. Alternatively, upon activating the circuit 100 or a corresponding error recovery/safe mode, the host system accessing the memory may simply wait a predefined amount of time before attempting to make the memory access.
The present invention allows memories to be designed to operate within a less wide thermal range than is conventional. In other words, diodes capable of operating over a broad thermal range such as −25° C. to 105° C. may no longer be required for non-volatile memory applications that employ the present invention. For example, a memory employing the temperature regulating circuit 100 described above may only need to be designed to function in the thermal operating range of 55° C. to 105° C. as opposed to the conventional range of −25° C. to 105° C.
Turning to
Turning to
In
In
Turning to
While the invention has been largely described with respect to the embodiments set forth above, the invention is not necessarily limited to such embodiments. For example, the instant invention can also be applied to three-dimensional memory arrays configured as a plurality of levels or planes, where word lines and/or bit lines are shared between levels, including, but not limited to: (1) the memory described in Johnson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,882, and Johnson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,122, both commonly assigned herewith; (2) the memory array described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/560,626 filed on Apr. 28, 2000, and commonly assigned herewith; (3) the memory array described in Knall et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,420,215, commonly assigned herewith; (4) the memory described in Kleveland et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,631,085; (5) the memory described in Scheuerlein U.S. Pat. No. 7,106,652 (and related applications); and (6) the memory described in Cleeves U.S. Pat. No. 7,081,377, each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The example temperature regulation circuit 100, or other functionally equivalent circuits, may be distributed on different levels within the three-dimensional memory. In some embodiments, for example, a plurality of heating elements, each coupled to and controlled by a single temperature sensor, may be distributed among multiple levels within the three-dimensional memory. In some embodiments, multiple sensors may control one or more heating elements on the same or different levels of the three-dimensional memory.
As used herein, the term passive element memory array (“PEMA”) may include a plurality of two-terminal memory cells, each connected between an associated X-line and an associated Y-line. Such a memory array may be a two-dimensional (planar) array or may be a three-dimensional array having more than one plane of memory cells. Each such memory cell may have a non-linear conductivity in which the current in a reverse direction (e.g., from cathode to anode) is less than the current in a forward direction. Application of a voltage from anode to cathode greater than a programming level changes the conductivity of the memory cell. The conductivity may decrease when the memory cell incorporates a fuse technology, or may increase when the memory cell incorporates an antifuse technology. A passive element memory array is not necessarily a one-time programmable (e.g., write once) memory array. The memory cell may incorporate a reprogrammable memory material for which the conductivity may decrease or increase after application of a suitable electrical pulse.
Such passive element memory cells may generally be viewed as having a current steering element directing current in a direction and another component which is capable of changing its state (e.g., a fuse, an antifuse, a capacitor, a resistive element, etc.). In certain embodiments of the present invention, the memory element is a diode-like structure having a p+ region separated from an n− region by an antifuse element. When the antifuse element is programmed, the p+ region is electrically connected to the n− region and forms a diode. The programming state of the memory element may be read by sensing current flow or a voltage drop when the memory element is selected. In an organic passive element memory cell array embodiment, the memory element is a diode-like structure having an anode region separated from a cathode region by an organic material layer whose conductivity changes as electrons are injected into the layer. PEMAs are further described in Scheuerlein et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,233,024, which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety.
The memory cells are comprised of semiconductor materials, as described in Johnson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,882, Zhang U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,396, Knall U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/560,626, and Johnson U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/638,428, each of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Specifically an antifuse memory cell is preferred. Other types of memory arrays that are stackable over support circuits, such as magnetoresistive random access memory (“MRAM”) and organic passive element arrays, can also be used. MRAM is based on magnetic memory elements, such as a magnetic tunnel junction (“MTJ”). MRAM technology is described in Peter K. Naji et al., “A 2556 kb 3.0V ITIMTJ Nonvolatile Magnetoresistive RAM,” published in the Digest of Technical Papers of the 2001 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, ISSCC 2001/Session 7/Technology Directions: Advanced Technologies/7.6, Feb. 6, 2001 and pages 94-95, 404-405 of ISSCC 2001 Visual Supplement, both of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. Certain passive element memory cells that incorporate layers of organic materials including at least one layer that has a diode-like characteristic conduction and at least one organic material that changes conductivity with the application of an electric field. Gudensen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,180 describes organic passive element arrays and is also hereby incorporated herein by reference. Memory cells comprising materials such as phase-change materials and amorphous solids can also be used. See Wolstenholme et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,012 and Ovshinsky et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,266, both of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. Memory cells comprising resistance change materials including Transition Metal Oxides, as described in more detail in Herner, et al. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0114508, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, and Carbon Nano Tube layers, which may be formed as described in Sen et al. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0269553, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, can also be used.
Based upon the teachings of this disclosure, it is expected that one of ordinary skill in the art will be readily able to practice the present invention. The descriptions of the various embodiments provided herein are believed to provide ample insight and details of the present invention to enable one of ordinary skill to practice the invention. Although certain supporting circuits (e.g., decoders, sensing circuits, multiplexers, input/output buffers, etc.) are not specifically described, such circuits are well known, and no particular advantage is afforded by specific variations of such circuits in the context of practicing this invention. Moreover, it is believed that one of ordinary skill in the art, equipped with the teaching of this disclosure, will be able to carry out the invention, including implementing various control circuits inferred but not specifically described herein, using well known circuit techniques and without undue experimentation. Nonetheless, additional details of bias conditions, bias circuits, and layer decoder circuits particularly suitable for a three-dimensional memory array of write-once anti-fuse passive element memory cells are described in Scheuerlein U.S. Pat. No. 6,618,295, and in Kleveland et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,631,085, which are both hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
In the above description, an array line is generally shared by two levels of the memory array (e.g., memory planes). Alternatively, a memory array may be fabricated having two conductors for each plane that are not shared with other planes. A dielectric layer may be used to separate each such memory level.
Word lines may also be referred to as row lines or X-lines, and bit lines may also be referred to as column lines or Y-lines. The distinction between “word” lines and “bit” lines may carry certain connotations to those skilled in the art. When reading a memory array, it is assumed by some practitioners that word lines are “driven” and bit lines are “sensed.” Moreover, the memory organization (e.g., data bus width, number of bits simultaneously read during an operation, etc.) may have some association with viewing one set of the two array lines more aligned with data “bits” rather than data “words.” Neither connotation is necessarily intended in this description.
The directionality of X-lines (e.g., which may be represented as horizontal lines) and Y-lines (e.g., which may be represented as vertical lines) is merely convenient for ease of description of the two groups of crossing lines in the array. While X-lines are usually orthogonal to Y-lines, such is not necessarily implied by such terminology. Moreover, the word and bit organization of a memory array may also be easily reversed, having Y-lines organized as word lines and X-lines organized as bit lines. As an additional example, portions of an array may correspond to different output bits of a given word. Such various array organizations and configurations are well known in the art and the present invention is intended to comprehend a wide variety of such variations.
The embodiments described may refer to a selected word line being driven to a voltage and a selected bit line being sensed in a read mode, and memory cell anode terminals connected to word lines and cathode terminals connected to bit lines, but other embodiments are specifically contemplated. For example, in a three-dimensional (e.g., multi-level) memory array, an adjacent memory plane may be connected similarly (e.g., a back-to-back diode stack memory array as described in Johnson, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,882, referred to and previously incorporated above), or may reverse the directionality of memory cells in the adjacent plane (e.g., a serial chain diode stack memory array as described in Kleveland et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,631,085, referred to and previously incorporated above) so that the anode terminals are connected to bit lines and the cathode terminals to word lines. Consequently, the designations of X-lines, word lines, and row lines, and of Y-lines, bit lines, and column lines are merely illustrative of the various embodiments and should not be viewed in a restrictive sense, but rather in a more general sense. For example, sensing circuits may be coupled to word lines rather than bit lines, or may be used for both word lines and bit lines, when sensing a current in a word line rather than in a bit line. For example, it should be appreciated that the designations X-line and Y-line for various array lines of a memory array on a serial chain diode stack do not necessarily imply which terminal of the memory cells (e.g., anode or cathode) is coupled to the particular line, as with a back-to-back diode stack. An X-line may be coupled to the anode terminal of memory cells in one associated memory plane, and may be coupled to the cathode terminal of memory cells in an adjacent memory plane.
Integrated circuits incorporating a memory array usually subdivide the array into a sometimes large number of smaller arrays, also sometimes known as sub-arrays. As used herein, an array is a contiguous group of memory cells having contiguous word and bit lines generally unbroken by decoders, drivers, sense amplifiers, and input/output circuits. An integrated circuit including a memory array may have one array, more than one array, or even a large number of arrays. An used herein, an integrated circuit memory array may be a monolithic integrated circuit structure, rather than more than one integrated circuit device packaged together or in close proximity, or die-bonded together.
The foregoing detailed description illustrates only a few of the many possible implementations of the present invention. For this reason, the above detailed description is intended to merely be illustrative and not to be limiting. Variations and modifications of the embodiments disclosed herein may be made based on the above description as well as generally well known principles, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. It is only the following claims, including all equivalents, which are intended to define the scope of this invention.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/772,097, filed Jun. 29, 2007, titled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR EXTENDING THE EFFECTIVE THERMAL OPERATING RANGE OF A MEMORY,” now U.S. Pat. No. 7,773,446, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4646266 | Ovshinsky | Feb 1987 | A |
| 4899180 | Elhatem et al. | Feb 1990 | A |
| 5177453 | Russell et al. | Jan 1993 | A |
| 5659270 | Millen et al. | Aug 1997 | A |
| 5751012 | Wolstenholme | May 1998 | A |
| 5835396 | Zhang | Nov 1998 | A |
| 6034882 | Johnson | Mar 2000 | A |
| 6055180 | Gudesen | Apr 2000 | A |
| 6185122 | Johnson et al. | Feb 2001 | B1 |
| 6373768 | Woo et al. | Apr 2002 | B2 |
| 6420215 | Knall | Jul 2002 | B1 |
| 6618295 | Scheuerlein | Sep 2003 | B2 |
| 6631085 | Kleveland | Oct 2003 | B2 |
| 6888750 | Walker et al. | May 2005 | B2 |
| 7081377 | Cleeves | Jul 2006 | B2 |
| 7106652 | Scheuerlein | Sep 2006 | B2 |
| 7148763 | Sutardja | Dec 2006 | B2 |
| 7173407 | Marinca | Feb 2007 | B2 |
| 7233024 | Scheuerlein | Jun 2007 | B2 |
| 7403423 | Marotta et al. | Jul 2008 | B2 |
| 7450456 | Jain et al. | Nov 2008 | B2 |
| 7504051 | Sen | Mar 2009 | B2 |
| 7646627 | Hidaka | Jan 2010 | B2 |
| 7656734 | Thorp et al. | Feb 2010 | B2 |
| 7812404 | Herner et al. | Oct 2010 | B2 |
| 20070114508 | Herner | May 2007 | A1 |
| 20090003109 | Thorp et al. | Jan 2009 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20100271894 A1 | Oct 2010 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 11772097 | Jun 2007 | US |
| Child | 12828846 | US |
