Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-21 are present for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to the claimed limitations have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejections as follows:
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kim et al. (US 2025/0336448 A1).
Regarding claim 12: Kim discloses a semiconductor memory system (1000, FIG. 9) comprising: one or more memory devices (100, FIG. 9); and one or more controllers (1100, FIG. 9) configured to: perform a read operation associated with a word line (read operation performed on word lines, par. 6) of the one or more memory devices; identify a temperature (T1 determined by temperature measurement circuit 170, FIG. 1) associated with the one or more memory devices based on the performance of the read operation (circuit 170 configured to measure a temperature after the read operation is performed, par. 6); and selectively modify, by a first value or a second value (adjusting the read count value depending on the read count increment, par. 6), based on a comparison of the temperature to a threshold (temperature T1 is compared to threshold first temperature α, par. 99, S840 of FIG. 8), a counter associated with a quantity of read operations (read count value, par. 6).
Regarding claim 13: Kim discloses a semiconductor memory system (1000, FIG. 9) configured to: increase the counter by the first value (S850, FIG. 8) based on a determination that the temperature satisfies the threshold (YES of S840, FIG. 8).
Regarding claim 14: Kim discloses a semiconductor memory system (1000, FIG. 9) configured to: increase the counter by the second value (e.g, S870 or S880, FIG. 8) based on a determination that the temperature does not satisfy the threshold (NO of S840, FIG. 8).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claim(s) 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 2025/0336448 A1) in view of Ayyapureddi et al. (US 20210020223 A1).
Regarding claim 15: Kim does not disclose a memory system configured to: determine whether the word line is adjacent to a tracked word line of one or more tracked word lines of the one or more memory devices; and increase, based on a determination that the word line is adjacent to the tracked word line, the counter by a third value.
Ayyapureddi does disclose an apparatus for tracking row addresses in a memory device configured to: determine whether the word line is adjacent to a tracked word line of one or more tracked word lines (account for adjacent word lines during read operation, par. 34-35) of the one or more memory devices; and increase, based on a determination that the word line is adjacent to the tracked word line, the counter by a third value (count value updated based the word lines in portion is accessed, par 35).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the device of Kim with the configuration of Ayyapureddi to allow the system to track and account for word lines that have been accessed previously and modify the count value of the counter accordingly.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 1-11 and 17-21 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Claims include allowable subject matter since the prior art made of record and
considered pertinent to the applicants’ disclosure, taken individually or in combination,
does not teach or suggest the claimed limitations having: selectively perform a first one or more read disturb operations or perform a second one or more read disturb operations based on whether the temperature satisfies a second threshold, the first one or more read disturb operations comprising a first type of page scan associated with a first one or more word lines of the one or more memory devices, and the second one or more read disturb operations comprising a second type of page scan associated with a second one or more word lines of the one or more memory devices as in claim 1; and selectively identifying, by the memory apparatus, a first one or more error rates using one or more page scans having a first type, the first one or more error rates associated with a first one or more pages of the one or more memory devices or identifying a second one or more error rates using one or more page scans having a second type, the second one or more error rates associated with a second one or more pages of the one or more memory devices based on determining whether the temperature satisfies a second threshold as in claim 17.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later
than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably
accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on
Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Claim(s) 16 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject
matter:
Claims include allowable subject matter since the prior art made of record and
considered pertinent to the applicants’ disclosure, taken individually or in combination,
does not teach or suggest the claimed invention having: following the identification of the first temperature and comparison to a first threshold: identify a second temperature associated with the one or more memory devices based on a determination that the counter satisfies a second threshold; and perform one or more read disturb operations on the one or more memory devices based on a determination that the second temperature satisfies a third threshold.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY THINH TANG whose telephone number is (571)272-6845. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:30-5:00 ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amir Zarabian can be reached at (571)272-1852. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANTHONY THINH TANG/Examiner, Art Unit 2827
/AMIR ZARABIAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2827
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