DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claims are directed to a computer program product comprising a computer readable storage media.
The term "computer readable storage media" has not been defined in the specification beyond what is recited in the claim language, see Paragraphs [0006] and [0081].
As such the specification does not limit the claims to only encompassing statutory subject matter. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is obliged to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification during proceedings before the USPTO. See In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319 (Fed. Cir. 1989) (during patent examination the pending claims must be interpreted as broadly as their terms reasonably allow). The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media, particularly when the specification is silent. See MPEP 2111.01. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter. See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356-57 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (transitory embodiments are not directed to statutory subject matter) and Interim Examination Instructions for Evaluating Subject Matter Eligibility Under 35 U.S.C. § 101, Aug. 24, 2009; p. 2.
The USPTO recognizes that applicants may have claims directed to computer readable media that cover signals per se, which the USPTO must reject under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering both non-statutory subject matter and statutory subject matter. In an effort to assist the patent community in overcoming a rejection or potential rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in this situation, the USPTO suggests the following approach. A claim drawn to such a computer readable medium that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the claim. Cf. Animals- Patentability, 1077 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 24 (April 21, 1987) (suggesting that applicants add the limitation "non-human" to a claim covering a multi-cellular organism to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101). Such an amendment would typically not raise the issue of new matter, even when the specification is silent because the broadest reasonable interpretation relies on the ordinary and customary meaning that includes signals per se. The limited situations in which such an amendment could raise issues of new matter occur, for example, when the specification does not support a non-transitory embodiment because a signal per se is the only viable embodiment such that the amended claim is impermissibly broadened beyond the supporting disclosure. See, e.g., Gentry Gallery, Inc. v. Berkline Corp., 134 F.3d 1473 (Fed. Cir. 1998).
Therefore, applicant is advised to clarify the claimed definition of the term "computer readable storage media".
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.
Claims 1, 4-5, 8-13, 15 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sharon et al. (US PGPUB 2020/0225852).
With regard to Claim 1, Sharon teaches a method comprising:
receiving, from a host device, a read command to access data stored on a non-volatile memory device ([0035] “FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative example of a system 100 that includes a data storage device 102 and an access device 180 (e.g., a host device or another device).” [0037] “The data storage device 102 may include or correspond to a solid state drive (SSD).” [0041] “The access device 180 may issue one or more commands to the data storage device 102, such as one or more requests to erase data, read data from, or write data to the memory device 103 of the data storage device 102.”);
determining a read voltage based on a temperature associated with the non-volatile memory device ([0107] “FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of another particular example of a method 1200 of determining a read voltage value.” [0108] “The method 1200 may include, at 1202, determining a read voltage offset value based on data structure that maps read voltage offset values to differences between write temperatures and read temperatures. For example, the data structure may include the table 128 and temperature-based adjuster 122 may perform a lookup operation to read the table 128 to determine a read voltage offset value, such as the first read voltage offset value 152, that corresponds to a particular temperature difference, such as the first temperature difference 150.”);
performing, based on the read command, a read operation using the read voltage to access the data ([0032] “After generating adjusted read parameters based on the temperature difference and reading the data...”); and
providing the data to the host device ([0047] “the controller 120 may send data to the access device 180 via the first interface 124... The controller 120 is configured... to receive data from the memory 104... The controller 120 is configured to send a read command to the memory 104 to access data from a specified address of the memory 104,” wherein the “controller 120” sends read data to the “access device 180”, i.e. the “host”, after retrieving it from the “memory 104” in response to a read command.).
With regard to Claim 4, Sharon teaches the method of claim 1, wherein determining the read voltage comprise:
determining the read voltage based on a change between a program temperature and a read temperature ([0022] “Adjusting read thresholds may be performed based on the difference between the temperature measured during reading compared to the temperature logged during programming.” [0035] “The data storage device 102 includes a temperature-based adjuster 122 that is configured to perform compensation based on temperature differences between writing data to a memory 104 and reading the data from the memory 104.” [0089] “The temperature compensation operation may cause one or more memory access parameters (such as the read voltage 164 of FIG. 1) to be modified based on a temperature difference between a first temperature associated with writing the multiple codewords... and a second temperature associated with reading the multiple codewords.”).
With regard to Claim 5, Sharon teaches the method of claim 4, wherein determining the read voltage comprise:
adjusting a default read voltage, associated with the non-volatile memory device, based on the change between the program temperature and the read temperature ([0054] “the trim adjuster 136 may be configured to retrieve one or more offset values from the table 128 based on the difference between a temperature that the data is written to the memory 104 and a temperature at which the data is to be read from the memory 104... The trim adjuster 136 may be configured to adjust a default value of one or more trim parameters based on offset values retrieved from table 128”).
With regard to Claim 8, Sharon teaches a system comprising:
a controller, of a non-volatile memory device ([0051] “The controller 120 includes a temperature based adjuster 122”), to:
determine a temperature associated with the non-volatile memory device ([0048] “Each of the temperature sensors 112 may be independently polled by the controller 120 to provide a respective temperature 162 for the associated memory die.” [0037] “The data storage device 102 may include or correspond to a solid state drive (SSD).”);
determine, based on the temperature, a read voltage for accessing data stored by the non-volatile memory device ([0107] “FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of another particular example of a method 1200 of determining a read voltage value.” [0108] “The method 1200 may include, at 1202, determining a read voltage offset value based on data structure that maps read voltage offset values to differences between write temperatures and read temperatures. For example, the data structure may include the table 128 and temperature-based adjuster 122 may perform a lookup operation to read the table 128 to determine a read voltage offset value, such as the first read voltage offset value 152, that corresponds to a particular temperature difference, such as the first temperature difference 150.”); and
perform a read operation, using the read voltage, to access the data ([0032] “After generating adjusted read parameters based on the temperature difference and reading the data...”).
With regard to Claim 9, Sharon teaches the system of claim 8, wherein, to determine the temperature, the controller is to:
determine the temperature based on an average temperature of the non-volatile memory device since the data was written to a virtual block of the non-volatile memory device ([0094] “The controller may be configured to receive multiple indicators from the memory device 103 and to determine an average based on the multiple indicators.” [0117] “The average temperature may be associated with a memory access, such as indicating a temperature condition prior to, during, or upon completion of reading data from the memory 104 or writing data to the memory 104.”).
With regard to Claim 10, Sharon teaches the system of claim 9, wherein the read operation is a first read operation and the read voltage is a first read voltage, and
wherein the controller is to:
determine that the first read operation is unsuccessful ([0032] “After generating adjusted read parameters based on the temperature difference and reading the data, a BER [bit error rate] for the data may be determined. If the BER is above a threshold (e.g., exceeds an error correction capacity of the ECC scheme that encodes the data), then the original read condition may be inadequate, or the offset may be inadequate.”); and
determine a second read voltage based on a change between a program temperature and a read temperature; and perform a second read operation using the second read voltage ([0032] “In this case, read parameters may be calibrated via CVD tracking or BES and data may be read again with the calibrated parameters with a reduced number of errors.” [0020] “One or more memory access parameters, such as read threshold voltages, may be adjusted based on tracking the CVD, based on BER, based on tables that are based on the difference between the write temperature and the read temperature”).
With regard to Claim 11, Sharon teaches the system of claim 10, wherein, to determine the second read voltage, the controller is to:
adjust the first read voltage based on the change between the program temperature and the read temperature ([0054] “the trim adjuster 136 may be configured to retrieve one or more offset values from the table 128 based on the difference between a temperature that the data is written to the memory 104 and a temperature at which the data is to be read from the memory 104... The trim adjuster 136 may be configured to adjust a default value of one or more trim parameters based on offset values retrieved from table 128”).
With regard to Claim 12, Sharon teaches the system of claim 10, wherein the controller is to:
determine that the second read operation is successful ([0020] “during reading data, a ‘read temperature’ for each read block or WL may be measured. One or more memory access parameters, such as read threshold voltages, may be adjusted”); and
store information regarding the second read voltage ([0062] “In response to the range adjustment 250 determining that the distribution of newer historical temperature measures 232 includes a portion of measurements, the range adjuster 138 may adjust one or more of the thresholds 210-214. For example, as depicted in the second graph 204, the range adjustment 250 may result in the first threshold 210 being increased to a first updated threshold 260.”).
With regard to Claim 13, Sharon teaches the system of claim 10, wherein the temperature includes a temperature associated with a portion of the non-volatile memory device ([0115] “The method 1400 includes, at 1402, receiving a first indicator of a first temperature from a first temperature sensor of a first die of the non-volatile memory. For example, the memory device 103 may include a stack 820 of memory die as in FIG. 8.” [0116] “The method 1400 includes, at 1404, receiving a second indicator of a second temperature from a second temperature sensor of a second die of the non-volatile memory.” [0117] “The method 1400 also includes, at 1406, determining a temperature range based on an average of the first temperature and the second temperature.”).
With regard to Claim 15, Sharon teaches a computer program product comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media, and program instructions collectively stored on the one or more computer readable storage media ([0119] “one or more aspects of the data storage device 102 may be implemented using a microprocessor or microcontroller programmed (e.g., by executing instructions) to perform one or more operations described herein, such as one or more operations of the methods 900-1400. In a particular embodiment, the data storage device 102 includes a processor executing instructions (e.g., firmware) retrieved from the memory device 103. Alternatively or in addition, instructions that are executed by the processor may be retrieved from memory separate from the memory device 103, such as at a read-only memory (ROM) that is external to the memory device 103.”),
the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to determine a temperature associated with a non-volatile memory device when a portion of the non-volatile memory device was written ([0037] “The data storage device 102 may include or correspond to a solid state drive (SSD).” [0020] “during reading data, a ‘read temperature’ for each read block or WL may be measured.” [0117] “The average temperature may be associated with a memory access, such as indicating a temperature condition prior to, during, or upon completion of reading data from the memory 104 or writing data to the memory 104.”).;
program instructions to determine, based on the temperature, a read voltage for accessing data stored by the non-volatile memory device ([0107] “FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of another particular example of a method 1200 of determining a read voltage value.” [0108] “The method 1200 may include, at 1202, determining a read voltage offset value based on data structure that maps read voltage offset values to differences between write temperatures and read temperatures. For example, the data structure may include the table 128 and temperature-based adjuster 122 may perform a lookup operation to read the table 128 to determine a read voltage offset value, such as the first read voltage offset value 152, that corresponds to a particular temperature difference, such as the first temperature difference 150.”); and
program instructions to perform a read operation, using the read voltage, to access the data ([0032] “After generating adjusted read parameters based on the temperature difference and reading the data...”).
With regard to Claim 19, this claim is equivalent in scope to Claims 4-5 rejected above, merely having a different independent claim type, and as such Claim 19 is rejected under the same grounds and for the same reasons as discussed above with regard to Claims 4-5.
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.
Claims 2-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharon as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view of Fackenthal (US PGPUB 2018/0101204).
With regard to Claim 2, Sharon teaches the method of claim 1, wherein determining the read voltage comprise:
determining the read voltage based on an average temperature associated with the non-volatile memory device ([0094] “The controller may be configured to receive multiple indicators from the memory device 103 and to determine an average based on the multiple indicators.”),
wherein the average temperature is based on a first temperature associated with a first read and a second temperature ([0020] “during reading data, a ‘read temperature’ for each read block or WL may be measured.” [0117] “The average temperature may be associated with a memory access, such as indicating a temperature condition prior to, during, or upon completion of reading data from the memory 104 or writing data to the memory 104.”).
With further regard to claim 2, Sharon does not teach the measuring of temperature during reliability reads as described in claim 2. Fackenthal teaches
the second temperature performing reliability reads ([0014] “at least a part of (e.g., a subset of) a refresh cycle (e.g., a second type of interval) may be used to access the temperature sensor, sample the temperature, and perform other operations to facilitate a temperature update,” wherein the “refresh cycle” is a type of “reliability read”.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have modified the method as disclosed by Sharon with the measuring of temperature during reliability reads as taught by Fackenthal so that “the memory array or a memory cell may be designed to compensate for temperature to maximize performance and minimize power” (Fackenthal [0015]).
With regard to Claim 3, Sharon in view of Fackenthal teaches all the limitations of Claim 2 as described above. Sharon further teaches wherein determining the read voltage comprise:
adjusting a default read voltage, associated with the non-volatile memory device, based on the average temperature ([0054] “The trim adjuster 136 may be configured to adjust a default value of one or more trim parameters based on offset values retrieved from table 128 and to provide the adjusted values to the memory device 103 for use during data retrieval from memory 104.” [0067] “An adjusted read voltage may be generated by or based on... a default value of the read voltage 301”).
Claims 6-7, 14, 16-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharon as applied to Claims 1, 10 and 15 above, and further in view of Palmer (US PGPUB 2022/0229580).
With regard to claim 6, Sharon teaches all the limitations of claim 1 as described above. Sharon does not teach the temperature associated with a virtual block as described in claim 6. Palmer teaches
wherein the temperature includes a temperature associated with the data in a virtual block ([0011] “According to the techniques described herein, temperature data may be stored for a set of partitions (e.g., ... a set of virtual block...) corresponding to one or more memory devices.” [0085] “The temperature tracking table 405 may be one example of a set of temperature ranges 410 and corresponding sets of partitions 415... a memory system may implement additional or alternative data structures to track temperature data for partitions (e.g., blocks or virtual blocks) of the memory system.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have modified the method as disclosed by Sharon with the temperature associated with a virtual block as taught by Palmer in order to “mitigate the negative effects of temperature on data retention and reading accuracy, effectively reducing the bit-error rate associated with read operations” (Palmer [0067]).
With regard to claim 7, Sharon teaches all the limitations of claim 1 as described above. Sharon does not teach periodically updating the temperature information as described in claim 7. Palmer teaches comprising:
periodically updating the temperature associated with the non-volatile memory device ([0062] “a temperature sensor 275 may periodically or aperiodically perform temperature readings (e.g., based on a timer or a counter).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have modified the method as disclosed by Sharon with the periodic updating of temperature information as taught by Palmer in order to “mitigate the negative effects of temperature on data retention and reading accuracy, effectively reducing the bit-error rate associated with read operations” (Palmer [0067]).
With regard to Claim 14, this claim is equivalent in scope to Claim 6 rejected above, merely having a different independent claim type, and as such Claim 14 is rejected under the same grounds and for the same reasons as discussed above with regard to Claim 6.
With regard to Claim 16, this claim is equivalent in scope to Claim 6 rejected above, merely having a different independent claim type, and as such Claim 16 is rejected under the same grounds and for the same reasons as discussed above with regard to Claim 6.
With regard to Claim 17, Sharon in view of Palmer teaches all the limitations of Claim 16 as described above. Sharon further teaches wherein the program instructions to determine the read voltage comprise:
program instructions to determine the temperature based on an average temperature of the non-volatile memory device associated with the data in the portion of the non-volatile memory device measured since the data was written to the virtual block ([0094] “The controller may be configured to receive multiple indicators from the memory device 103 and to determine an average based on the multiple indicators.” [0117] “The average temperature may be associated with a memory access, such as indicating a temperature condition prior to, during, or upon completion of reading data from the memory 104 or writing data to the memory 104.”).
With regard to Claim 18, Sharon in view of Palmer teaches all the limitations of Claim 17 as described above. Sharon further teaches wherein the program instructions to determine the read voltage comprise:
adjust a default read voltage based on the average temperature ([0035] “The temperature-based adjuster 122 is also configured to perform compensation based on a programming temperature (e.g., a temperature of the memory 104 that is measured just before, during, or after data is written into the memory 104) being outside of a ‘normal’ temperature range.” [0117] “The method 1400 also includes, at 1406, determining a temperature range based on an average of the first temperature and the second temperature.” [0054] “The trim adjuster 136 may be configured to adjust a default value of one or more trim parameters based on offset values retrieved from table 128 and to provide the adjusted values to the memory device 103 for use during data retrieval from memory 104.” [0067] “An adjusted read voltage may be generated by or based on... a default value of the read voltage 301”).).
With regard to claim 20, Sharon teaches all the limitations of claim 15 as described above. Sharon does not teach periodically updating the temperature information as described in claim 20. Palmer teaches wherein the program instructions comprise:
program instructions to periodically update the temperature associated with the data on the portion of the non-volatile memory device ([0062] “a temperature sensor 275 may periodically or aperiodically perform temperature readings (e.g., based on a timer or a counter).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have modified the method as disclosed by Sharon with the periodic updating of temperature information as taught by Palmer in order to “mitigate the negative effects of temperature on data retention and reading accuracy, effectively reducing the bit-error rate associated with read operations” (Palmer [0067]).
With further regard to Claim 20, Sharon further teaches wherein the program instructions comprise:
program instructions to update the temperature associated with the data on the portion of the non-volatile memory device based on performing the read operation ([0020] “during reading data, a ‘read temperature’ for each read block or WL may be measured.” [0117] “The average temperature may be associated with a memory access, such as indicating a temperature condition prior to, during, or upon completion of reading data from the memory 104 or writing data to the memory 104.”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure is as follows:
Yang et al. (US PGPUB 2017/0200492) discloses systems, methods and devices to adjust a read voltage for a memory portion of non-volatile memory based on determined temperature information related to the non-volatile memory.
Sethuraman et al. (“Temperature Aware Adaptations for Improved Read Reliability in STT-MRAM Memory Subsystem,” 2020) discusses temperature aware adaptive techniques for reliable reads at the rank level, including discussion regarding a memory controller based temperature aware adaptation for DDR4 STT-MRAM which considers the ambient temperature and memory activity, and signals the STT-MRAM chips on DIMM to vary read current and read pulse width.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NICHOLAS J SIMONETTI whose telephone number is (571)270-7702. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 10AM-6PM EST.
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/NICHOLAS J SIMONETTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2137 December 27, 2025