NON-FINAL OFFICE ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12/18/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-3, 12-14, and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2017/0004063 to Broderick et al. (hereinafter Broderick) in view of U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2024/0061611 to Liu, and further in view of U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0019218 to Zhu et al. (hereinafter Zhu).
Broderick discloses:
1. A method of operating a storage device including a storage controller and non- volatile memories (Fig. 1, controlling unit 110, non-volatile flash memory array 140), the method comprising:
detecting, by the storage controller, an event of a first non-volatile memory among the non-volatile memories (para. [0095] – detection of error event by flash memory controller 100);
generating, by the storage controller, event information based on the detected event and transmitting, by the storage controller, the event information including an event type to the first non-volatile memory (paras. [0037], [0080], [0096] – control register content indicates operating mode);
generating, by the first non-volatile memory, internal information or data of the first non-volatile memory as debugging data in response to the event information (paras. [0095], [0097]);
storing the debugging data by the first non-volatile memory (para. [0097]); and
updating, by the first non-volatile memory, an event flag to indicate a certain event type based on the event information (para. [0098] – flash memory controller transitions to another mode).
Broderick does not disclose expressly:
generating, by the first non-volatile memory, separate from the storage controller, internal information or data of the first non-volatile memory as debugging data in response to the event information; and
wherein a type of information stored in the debugging data varies based on the event type included in the event information.
Liu teaches generating, by the first non-volatile memory, separate from the storage controller, internal information or data of the first non-volatile memory as debugging data in response to the event information (paras. [0034], [0035], [0062]) and wherein a type of information stored in the debugging data varies based on the event type included in the event information (paras. [0068], [0069], [0077]).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to modify Broderick by generating internal debug information separately and storing information in the debugging data based on event type, as taught by Liu. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so in order to “provide for a more robust debug mode, thereby improving debugging performance and enhancing diagnostic accuracy” as discussed by Liu (para. [0011]).
Broderick further does not disclose expressly:
storing, by a second non-volatile memory among the non-volatile memories, the debugging data generated by the first non-volatile memories.
Zhu teaches storing, by a second non-volatile memory among the non-volatile memories, the debugging data generated by the first non-volatile memories (paras. [0039], [0065]).
Before the effect filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify Broderick by storing debugging data to a second non-volatile memory, as taught by Zhu. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so because it would have been obvious to try each of the storage possibilities within the system for storing the debugging data. As discussed by Zhu, the debugging data can be stored within the memory devices 130, local memory 119, memory device 140, or host system 120 (paras. [0039], [0065]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to try storing debugging data to a second non-volatile memory, as recited by the claim.
Modified Broderick discloses:
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing of the debugging data by the first non-volatile memory includes at least one of:
storing command/address information by the first non-volatile memory;
storing feature information by the first non-volatile memory; and
storing E-FUSE information by the first non-volatile memory (Broderick - paras. [0089]-[0092]).
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising switching, by the first non-volatile memory, from a first mode to a second mode in response to the event information (Broderick - paras. [0037], [0080], [0096] and Fig. 3).
12. A method of operating a non-volatile memory, the method comprising:
receiving event information including an event type from an external storage controller through a control signal or a data signal (Broderick - paras. [0037], [0080], [0096]);
switching from a first mode to a second mode in response to the event information (Broderick - Fig. 3, capture mode S22);
generating and storing, separate from the external storage controller, debugging data (Broderick - paras. [0095], [0097] and Liu - paras. [0034], [0035], [0062]); and
updating an event flag based on the event type included in the event information (Broderick - para. [0098]), and
transmitting the debugging data to the external storage controller for storage in an external non-volatile memory (Zhu - paras. [0039], [0065]),
wherein, based on the event type included in the event information, the debugging data includes at least one of command/address information, feature information, and E-FUSE information (Broderick - paras. [0089]-[0092] and Liu - paras. [0068], [0069], [0077]).
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:
receiving a first acquisition command through the control signal or the data signal (Broderick - para. [0083]);
providing the event flag to the external storage controller in response to the first acquisition command (Broderick - paras. [0095], [0096]);
receiving a second acquisition command through the control signal or the data signal (Broderick - paras. [0037], [0080], [0096]); and
providing the debugging data including the at least one of the command/address information, the feature information, and the E-FUSE information to the external storage controller in response to the second acquisition command (para. [0097]).
14. The method of claim 12, further comprising selecting a type of information to be stored as the debugging data, according to the event type included in the event information (Broderick - paras. [0089]-[0092]).
16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:
receiving a reset command in the second mode (para. [0095]); and
performing a reset operation without initializing data in response to the reset command (Broderick - para. [0096]).
17. A storage device comprising:
a plurality of non-volatile memories (Broderick - para. [0105] and Fig. 4); and
a storage controller (Broderick - Fig. 4, flash memory controller 100), wherein the storage controller is configured to detect an event of a first non-volatile memory among the plurality of non-volatile memories, generate event information based on the detected event, and transmit the event information including an event type to the first non-volatile memory (Broderick - para. [0095]),
the first non-volatile memory among the plurality of non-volatile memories is configured to switch from a first mode to a second mode in response to the event information (Broderick - paras. [0037], [0080], [0096]), generate and store, separate from the storage controller, debugging data in the second mode (Broderick - paras. [0095], [0097] and Liu - paras. [0034], [0035], [0062]), and update an event flag to indicate the event type included in the event information (Broderick - para. [0098]),
a second non-volatile memory among the plurality of non-volatile memories is configured to store the debugging data generated by the first non-volatile memory (Zhu - paras. [0039], [0065]), and
based on the event type included in the event information, the debugging data includes at least one of command/address information, feature information, and E-FUSE information (Broderick - paras. [0089]-[0092] and Liu - paras. [0068], [0069], [0077]).
18. The storage device of claim 17, wherein the first non-volatile memory is further configured to provide the event flag and the debugging data to the storage controller (Broderick - paras. [0095]-[0097]).
19. The storage device of claim 17, wherein the event type is one of a busy hang event, an erase fail event, a program fail event, a UECC event, or a clean page event (Broderick - para. [0096]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-11, 15, and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/PHILIP GUYTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2113