Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 05, 2026
Application No. 18/790,885

LAST WRITTEN PAGE HANDLING FOR OPEN CURSOR BLOCK SCANS IN A MEMORY SUB-SYSTEM

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Jul 31, 2024
Examiner
KING, DANIEL JOHN
Art Unit
2827
Tech Center
2800 — Semiconductors & Electrical Systems
Assignee
Micron Technology Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
97%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
4m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 97% — above average
97%
Career Allowance Rate
59 granted / 61 resolved
+28.7% vs TC avg
Minimal +5% lift
Without
With
+4.8%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 3m
Avg Prosecution
12 currently pending
Career history
79
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§103
45.7%
+5.7% vs TC avg
§102
15.2%
-24.8% vs TC avg
§112
37.1%
-2.9% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 61 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . Specification The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification. 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) 1, 9, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20190155744 A1 (Srinivasan, et al., hereinafter Srinivasan) in view of US 20200117387 A1 (Cadloni, et al., hereinafter Cadloni). Regarding claim 1, Srinivasan teaches a system comprising: a plurality of memory devices; (Srinivasan, [0016]: “A number of embodiments of the present disclosure include sending a single command (e.g., in parallel) from a system controller to one or more memory devices to initiate a LWP search, and results in a response from the memory devices providing the system controller with LWP information.”) and a processing device operatively coupled to the plurality of memory devices (Srinivasan, [0021]: “Computing system 100 includes a memory system 104 coupled to a host 102 through an interface 106.”; Srinivasan, [0023]: “Host 102 can include a number of processors 105 (e.g., parallel processors, co-processors, etc.) coupled to a memory and bus control 107. The processor 105 can be a number of microprocessors, or some other type of controlling circuitry, such as a number of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), for example. Other components of the computing system 100 may also have processors”); determining last written page (LWP) data for one or more memory devices of the plurality of memory devices; (Srinivasan, [0013]: “An example method of the present disclosure includes, responsive to a loss of last written page information by a memory system, initiating a last written page search to determine last written page information of a memory device, where the last written page search is initiated via a command from a controller of the memory system to the memory device, responsive to receiving the command, performing the last written page search on the memory device, and providing the last written page information to the controller.”) and performing a scan on one or more pages of the one or more memory devices of the plurality of memory devices based on the LWP data. (Srinivasan, [0068]: “Responsive to determining the particular word line corresponding to the last written page of a block (e.g., WL6 in this example), a subsequent binary search of the sub-blocks SB0 through SB5 coupled to word line WL6 can be performed to determine in which particular sub-block the last written page of the block is located.”) Srinivasan does not appear to explicitly teach a processor configured to perform operations comprising: detecting a scan trigger event. Cadloni cures the deficiencies of Srinivasan. Cadloni teaches a device including a processor configured to perform operations comprising: detecting a scan trigger event; (Cadloni, [0027]: “The processing logic for method 200 can be triggered by a background scan trigger event from a set of background scan trigger events. For example, at block 202, a trigger event can occur in response to a timer reaching a timing threshold, or at block 204, a trigger event can occur in response to event tracking data (e.g. a count of I/O events) reaching an event limit threshold.”) Srinivasan and Cadloni are both directed to searches/scans in a memory system. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing to combine the memory system of Srinivasan with the detection of a scan trigger event of Cadloni in order to include a specific “scan trigger event” to trigger a scan/search of a memory sub-system. One would have the motivation to combine in order to improve functionality of the memory device. Regarding claim 9, Srinivasan teaches a method comprising: determining last written page (LWP) data for one or more memory devices of a plurality of memory devices in the memory sub-system; (Srinivasan, [0013]: “An example method of the present disclosure includes, responsive to a loss of last written page information by a memory system, initiating a last written page search to determine last written page information of a memory device, where the last written page search is initiated via a command from a controller of the memory system to the memory device, responsive to receiving the command, performing the last written page search on the memory device, and providing the last written page information to the controller.”)and performing a scan on one or more pages of the one or more of the plurality of memory devices based on the LWP data. (Srinivasan, [0068]: “Responsive to determining the particular word line corresponding to the last written page of a block (e.g., WL6 in this example), a subsequent binary search of the sub-blocks SB0 through SB5 coupled to word line WL6 can be performed to determine in which particular sub-block the last written page of the block is located.”) Srinivasan does not explicitly teach detecting a scan trigger event in a memory sub-system. Cadloni cures the deficiencies of Srinivasan. Cadloni teaches detecting a scan trigger event in a memory sub-system. (Cadloni, [0027]: “The processing logic for method 200 can be triggered by a background scan trigger event from a set of background scan trigger events. For example, at block 202, a trigger event can occur in response to a timer reaching a timing threshold, or at block 204, a trigger event can occur in response to event tracking data (e.g. a count of I/O events) reaching an event limit threshold.”) Srinivasan and Cadloni are both directed to searches/scans in a memory system. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing to combine the memory system of Srinivasan with the detection of a scan trigger event of Cadloni in order to include a specific “scan trigger event” to trigger a scan/search of a memory sub-system. One would have the motivation to combine in order to improve functionality of the memory device. Regarding claim 15. Srinivasan teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (Srinivasan, [0022]: “Example hosts 102 can include laptop computers, personal computers, digital cameras, digital recording and playback devices, mobile telephones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), memory card readers, interface hubs, sensors, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled devices, among other host systems.”) comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising: determining last written page (LWP) data for one or more memory devices of a plurality of memory devices in the memory sub-system; (Srinivasan, [0013]: “An example method of the present disclosure includes, responsive to a loss of last written page information by a memory system, initiating a last written page search to determine last written page information of a memory device, where the last written page search is initiated via a command from a controller of the memory system to the memory device, responsive to receiving the command, performing the last written page search on the memory device, and providing the last written page information to the controller.”) and performing a scan on one or more pages of the one or more of the plurality of memory devices based on the LWP data. (Srinivasan, [0068]: “Responsive to determining the particular word line corresponding to the last written page of a block (e.g., WL6 in this example), a subsequent binary search of the sub-blocks SB0 through SB5 coupled to word line WL6 can be performed to determine in which particular sub-block the last written page of the block is located.”) Srinivasan does not explicitly teach detecting a scan trigger event in a memory sub-system. Cadloni cures the deficiencies of Srinivasan. Cadloni teaches detecting a scan trigger event in a memory sub-system. (Cadloni, [0027]: “The processing logic for method 200 can be triggered by a background scan trigger event from a set of background scan trigger events. For example, at block 202, a trigger event can occur in response to a timer reaching a timing threshold, or at block 204, a trigger event can occur in response to event tracking data (e.g. a count of I/O events) reaching an event limit threshold.”) Srinivasan and Cadloni are both directed to searches/scans in a memory system. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing to combine the memory system of Srinivasan with the detection of a scan trigger event of Cadloni in order to include a specific “scan trigger event” to trigger a scan/search of a memory sub-system. One would have the motivation to combine in order to improve functionality of the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 2-8, 10-14, and 16-20 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. Regarding claim 2, the prior art of record does not teach a system comprising: a plurality of memory devices; and a processing device operatively coupled to the plurality of memory devices and configured to perform operations comprising: detecting a scan trigger event; determining last written page (LWP) data for one or more memory devices of the plurality of memory devices; and performing a scan on one or more pages of the one or more memory devices of the plurality of memory devices based on the LWP data, wherein the scan comprises a media scan, and wherein the scan trigger event for the media scan comprises an expiration of a pre-determined time interval. Claims 3-5 are objected to as dependent upon claim 2. Regarding claim 6, the prior art of record does not teach a system comprising: a plurality of memory devices; and a processing device operatively coupled to the plurality of memory devices and configured to perform operations comprising: detecting a scan trigger event; determining last written page (LWP) data for one or more memory devices of the plurality of memory devices; and performing a scan on one or more pages of the one or more memory devices of the plurality of memory devices based on the LWP data, wherein the scan comprises a read disturb scan, and wherein the scan trigger event for the read disturb scan comprises a current read count for a memory device satisfying a threshold criterion. Claims 7-8 are objected to as dependent upon claim 6. Regarding claim 10, the prior art of record does not teach a method comprising: detecting a scan trigger event in a memory sub-system; determining last written page (LWP) data for one or more memory devices of a plurality of memory devices in the memory sub-system; and performing a scan on one or more pages of the one or more of the plurality of memory devices based on the LWP data, wherein the scan comprises a media scan, and wherein the scan trigger event for the media scan comprises an expiration of a pre-determined time interval. Claims 11-12 are objected to as dependent upon claim 10. Regarding claim 13, the prior art of record does not teach a method comprising: detecting a scan trigger event in a memory sub-system; determining last written page (LWP) data for one or more memory devices of a plurality of memory devices in the memory sub-system; and performing a scan on one or more pages of the one or more of the plurality of memory devices based on the LWP data, wherein the scan comprises a read disturb scan, and wherein the scan trigger event for the read disturb scan comprises a current read count for a memory device satisfying a threshold criterion. Claim 14 is objected to as dependent upon claim 13. Regarding claim 16, the prior art of record does not teach a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising: detecting a scan trigger event in a memory sub-system; determining last written page (LWP) data for one or more memory devices of a plurality of memory devices in the memory sub-system; and performing a scan on one or more pages of the one or more of the plurality of memory devices based on the LWP data, wherein the scan comprises a media scan, and wherein the scan trigger event for the media scan comprises an expiration of a pre-determined time interval. Claims 17-18 are objected to as dependent upon claim 16. Regarding claim 19, the prior art of record does not teach a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising: detecting a scan trigger event in a memory sub-system; determining last written page (LWP) data for one or more memory devices of a plurality of memory devices in the memory sub-system; and performing a scan on one or more pages of the one or more of the plurality of memory devices based on the LWP data, wherein the scan comprises a read disturb scan, and wherein the scan trigger event for the read disturb scan comprises a current read count for a memory device satisfying a threshold criterion. Claim 20 is objected to as dependent upon claim 19. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL J KING whose telephone number is (703)756-1232. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-5pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. 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. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /DANIEL JOHN KING/Examiner, Art Unit 2827 /AMIR ZARABIAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2827
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jul 31, 2024
Application Filed
Apr 06, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12670377
ADJUSTABLE PROGRAMMING CIRCUIT FOR NEURAL NETWORK
3y 6m to grant Granted Jun 30, 2026
Patent 12658269
STORAGE DEVICE AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOF
2y 3m to grant Granted Jun 16, 2026
Patent 12651626
SEMICONDUCTOR MEMORY DEVICE
3y 7m to grant Granted Jun 09, 2026
Patent 12651637
READ OPERATION WITH CAPACITY USAGE DETECTION SCHEME
2y 7m to grant Granted Jun 09, 2026
Patent 12633344
TECHNIQUES FOR PARALLEL MEMORY CELL ACCESS
2y 2m to grant Granted May 19, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

Strategy Recommendation AI-generated — please review before filing

Get a prosecution strategy drawn from examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Typically takes 5-10 seconds — AI-generated, attorney review required before filing

Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
97%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+4.8%)
2y 3m (~4m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 61 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

Sign in with your work email

Enter your email to receive a magic link. No password needed.

Personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are not accepted.

Free tier: 3 strategy analyses per month