Increasing Flash Memory Lifetime by Dynamic Voltage Allocation for Constant Mutual Information

The read channel in Flash memory systems degrades over time because the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling used to apply charge to the floating gate eventually compromises the integrity of the cell because of tunnel oxide degradation. While degradation is commonly measured in the number of program/erase cycles experienced by a cell, the degradation is proportional to the number of electrons forced into the floating gate and later released by the erasing process. By managing the amount of charge written to the floating gate to maintain a constant read-channel mutual information, Flash lifetime can be extended. This paper proposes an overall system approach based on information theory to extend the lifetime of a flash memory device. Using the instantaneous storage capacity of a noisy flash memory channel, our approach allocates the read voltage of flash cell dynamically as it wears out gradually over time. A practical estimation of the instantaneous capacity is also proposed based on soft information via multiple reads of the memory cells.Comment: 5 pages. 5 figure

Histogram-Based Flash Channel Estimation

Current generation Flash devices experience significant read-channel degradation from damage to the oxide layer during program and erase operations. Information about the read-channel degradation drives advanced signal processing methods in Flash to mitigate its effect. In this context, channel estimation must be ongoing since channel degradation evolves over time and as a function of the number of program/erase (P/E) cycles. This paper proposes a framework for ongoing model-based channel estimation using limited channel measurements (reads). This paper uses a channel model characterizing degradation resulting from retention time and the amount of charge programmed and erased. For channel histogram measurements, bin selection to achieve approximately equal-probability bins yields a good approximation to the original distribution using only ten bins (i.e. nine reads). With the channel model and binning strategy in place, this paper explores candidate numerical least squares algorithms and ultimately demonstrates the effectiveness of the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm which provides both speed and accuracy.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to the IEEE International Communications Conference (ICC) 201