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 .
This Office Action is responsive to the application filed 16 January 2025.
Claims 1-20 are pending and have been presented for examination.
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) 1, 2, 6-9, 13 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by PANG (U.S. Patent Application Publication #2017/0365349).
1. PANG discloses A method of operating a storage device comprising a storage controller (see [0079]: control circuitry) and non- volatile memories (see [0077]: memory device including one or more memory die; [0057]: NAND string of memory cells, NAND is a non-volatile memory), the method comprising: detecting a trigger event for application of a curing pulse (see [0178]: first read situation); determining a voltage level of the curing pulse (see [0166]: magnitude of dummy voltage used to cure the first read situation); and applying a curing command instructing generation of the curing pulse according to the determined voltage level (see [0169]-[0171]: control circuit commanding a voltage driver to apply the voltage), wherein the trigger event corresponds to an event in which a block comprising a target word line is expected not to be accessed for more than a predefined period of time after a read operation on the target word line is completed (see [0178]: first read situation where the block has not been accessed in a threshold period of time; [0067]: memory cells transition to the first read situation over time), the curing pulse corresponds to a voltage pulse applied to at least one word line of a block or sub-block comprising the target word line on which the read operation has been performed (see [0167]: voltage applied to all data word lines in a block), and the voltage level of the curing pulse is less than a read voltage (see [0167]-[0168]: dummy voltage is decreased to 0V, which is less than a read voltage).
2. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the curing command comprises: identifying whether data requested to be read comprises cold data (see [0065]: cells in the first read situation are cells that have not been accessed for a significant amount of time, this would be considered cold data); and applying the curing pulse to at least one word line of a block or sub-block corresponding to the cold data when the data requested to be read comprises the cold data (see [0161]: applying the dummy voltage cures the first read situation) or skipping application of the curing pulse and putting the non-volatile memories into an idle state when the data requested to be read does not comprise the cold data (see [0066]: when cells are in the second read situation, no dummy voltage is applied).
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one word line corresponds to any one of an edge word line of a block or sub-block corresponding to the target word line, word lines spaced apart from the target word line by N, where N is a positive integer, and all word lines of the block or sub-block corresponding to the target word line (see [0167]: voltage applied to all data word lines in a block).
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger event comprises putting the non- volatile memory into an idle state (see [0067]: memory cells transition to the first read situation over time, this would be considered an idle state), and applying the curing command comprises applying the curing pulse to at least one word line in a block or sub-block of a target word line corresponding to a last performed read command in response to the non-volatile memory being put into the idle state (see [0178]: if the last sensing operation exceeds a threshold, the block would be in the first read situation, the last sensing would be a read operation; [0191]: the dummy voltage is applied before read voltages).
8. PANG discloses A storage device comprising: non-volatile memories (see [0077]: memory device including one or more memory die; [0057]: NAND string of memory cells, NAND is a non-volatile memory); and a storage controller (see [0079]: control circuitry) comprising a pulse management circuit configured to detect a trigger event for application of a curing pulse (see [0178]: first read situation), determine a voltage level of the curing pulse (see [0166]: magnitude of dummy voltage used to cure the first read situation), and apply a curing command instructing generation of the curing pulse according to the determined voltage level (see [0169]-[0171]: control circuit commanding a voltage driver to apply the voltage), wherein the trigger event corresponds to an event in which a block comprising a target word line is expected not to be accessed for more than a predefined period of time after a read operation on the target word line is completed (see [0178]: first read situation where the block has not been accessed in a threshold period of time; [0067]: memory cells transition to the first read situation over time), and the curing pulse corresponds to a voltage pulse applied to at least one word line in a block or sub-block comprising the target word line on which the read operation has been performed (see [0167]: voltage applied to all data word lines in a block).
9. The storage device of claim 8, wherein the storage controller is further configured to: identify whether data requested to be read comprises cold data (see [0065]: cells in the first read situation are cells that have not been accessed for a significant amount of time, this would be considered cold data); apply the curing pulse to at least one word line of a block or sub-block corresponding to the cold data when the data requested to be read comprises the cold data (see [0161]: applying the dummy voltage cures the first read situation); and skip application of the curing pulse and put the non-volatile memories into an idle state when the data requested to be read does not comprise the cold data (see [0066]: when cells are in the second read situation, no dummy voltage is applied).
13. The storage device of claim 8, wherein the at least one word line corresponds to any one of an edge word line of a block or sub-block corresponding to the target word line, word lines spaced apart from the target word line by N, where N is a positive integer, and all word lines of the block or sub-block corresponding to the target word line (see [0167]: voltage applied to all data word lines in a block).
14. The storage device of claim 8, wherein the trigger event comprises putting the non-volatile memory into an idle state (see [0067]: memory cells transition to the first read situation over time, this would be considered an idle state), and the storage controller is configured to apply the curing pulse to at least one word line in a block or sub-block of a target word line corresponding to a last performed read command in response to the non-volatile memory being put into the idle state (see [0178]: if the last sensing operation exceeds a threshold, the block would be in the first read situation, the last sensing would be a read operation; [0191]: the dummy voltage is applied before read voltages).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-20 are allowed.
Claims 3-5 and 10-12 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The state of the art fails to anticipate, or render obvious, “… sensing a voltage level of a neighboring word line adjacent to the target word line; and determining the voltage level of the curing pulse as a first level when the sensed voltage level is greater than a first threshold, determining the voltage level of the curing pulse as a second level lower than the first level when the sensed voltage level is less than the first threshold and greater than a second threshold, or determining the voltage level of the curing pulse as a third level lower than the second level when the sensed voltage level is less than the second threshold and greater than a third threshold.” [Recited in claims 3 and 10]
The state of the art fails to anticipate, or render obvious, “… the trigger event comprises a power on reset event, and applying the curing command comprises: performing a prescan sequence; determining that the prescan sequence has been terminated; and applying the curing pulse to at least one word line of a block or sub-block on which the prescan sequence has been performed, when the prescan sequence has been terminated.” [Recited in claims 4 and 11]
The state of the art fails to anticipate, or render obvious, “… the trigger event comprises a case in which a length of a wait queue is 0, and applying the curing command comprises: monitoring a command queue; and applying the curing pulse to at least one word line of a block or sub-block of a target word line corresponding to a last read command in response to the length of the wait queue being 0.” [Recited in claims 5 and 12]
The state of the art fails to anticipate, or render obvious, “… the curing pulse corresponds to a voltage pulse applied to at least one word line in a block or sub-block comprising the target word line on which the read operation has been performed…” and “… the voltage level of the curing pulse is less than a read voltage, and a pulse width of the curing pulse is less than that of a pulse applied to neighboring word lines according to the read command.” [Recited in claim 15]
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
YUAN [2025/0046386] discloses determining a condition of neighbor word lines and adjusting the sensing operation for a read based on the condition of neighbor lines. [0171]-[0182]
LU [2025/0037773] discloses a read overdrive operation to recover a word line after a read operation on the word line. [0036]
CHEN [2023/0410920] discloses memory cells gradually transitioning to a first read state. [0148]
GUO [2023/0343400] discloses applying a voltage to neighbor word lines. [0009]
MASUDUZZMAN [2022/0415406] discloses a pulse amplitude and pulse width are provided to obtain optimal improvement, the pulse width can be configured, the pulse width is based on the number of P/E cycles for the memory block. [0033]-[0067]
NAM [2015/0221387] discloses read disturb reducing modes and application of a ground to unselected word lines. [0008], [0019]
YANG [2015/0071008] discloses a read command to a word line, applying a pass voltage to neighbor lines, the pass voltage effect on neighbor lines and state dependent pass voltage levels. [0067]-[0081]
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EDWARD J DUDEK JR whose telephone number is (571)270-1030. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00A-4:00P.
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/EDWARD J DUDEK JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2132