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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/06/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 5-6, 15-16 and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo et al. (US 2022/0293187 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Guo teaches a memory device comprising:
a memory array comprising a plurality of wordlines associated with memory cells of the memory array (Fig. 3, Memory arras301 to 304 comprising a plurality of wordlines 318); and
control logic operatively coupled with the memory array (Fig. 3, Peripheral circuit 302), the control logic to perform operations comprising:
determining, in conjunction with a read operation directed at one or more strings of the memory cells, a number of wordlines that are associated with memory cells that have been programmed, wherein the determining comprises receiving, in a read command associated with a feature address of a selected wordline, a percentage value corresponding to the number of wordlines (Guo teaches the threshold voltage shift which is affected by the number of word lines that have been programmed, ¶0054. Blocks are programmed in sequence starting with the first word line. Guo teaches in the read operation, the offset calculation module 604 receives the last programmed page/wordline, which is equal to the number of word lines that have been programmed in a block. Guo teaches the offset is calculated based on the ratio of total number of programmed word lines J and the total number of word lines in a block K, ¶0055. Guo teaches receiving the number of programmed wordlines but does not teach the calculation module to receive a percentage value corresponding to the number of wordlines. However, a person in the art can calculate the percentage of the number of wordlines using the values J and K for a block);
adjusting, based on the number of wordlines, a read level voltage for the selected wordline of the one or more strings; and causing, during the read operation, the adjusted read level voltage to be applied to the selected wordline (¶0059).
Regarding claim 2, Guo further teaches the memory device of claim 1, wherein the one or more strings have been partially programmed such that at least some of the memory cells of the one or more strings are in an erased state (The whole memory block is erased during the erase operation. Memory cells that have not been programmed are still in the erase state, see ¶0040).
Regarding claim 5, Guo further teaches the memory device of claim 1, wherein the adjusting comprises: causing a first read calibration to be performed to determine a first voltage offset corresponding to the number of wordlines in a partially-programmed block; causing a second read calibration to be performed to determine a second voltage offset that compensates for a temporal voltage shift associated with the selected wordline; combining the first voltage offset and the second voltage offset to determine a total voltage offset; and adjusting, using the total voltage offset, an existing read level voltage to generate the adjusted read level voltage (¶0057).
Regarding claim 6, Guo further teaches the memory device of claim 1, wherein the adjusting comprises: correlating the percentage value to a first voltage offset that compensates for a voltage shift corresponding to the number of wordlines in a partial block; causing a read calibration to be performed to determine a second voltage offset that compensates for a temporal voltage shift associated with the selected wordline; combining the first voltage offset and the second voltage offset to determine a total voltage offset; and adjusting, using the voltage offset, an existing read level voltage to generate the adjusted read level voltage (¶0057).
Regarding claims 15-16 and 19-20, the claims have similar limitations as claims 1-2 and 5-6 except the claims are written as a method format. Therefore, the claims are rejected under the same grounds of rejection.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-14 are allowed.
Claims 3-4 and 17-18 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:
After further search and consideration it is determined that the prior art of record neither anticipated nor renders obvious the claimed subject matter of the instant application as a whole either taken alone or in combination, in particular, prior art of record does not teach, the following limitation(s) in combination with the remaining claimed limitation:
Regarding claims 3 and 17, determining, in conjunction with a read operation directed at one or more strings of the memory cells, a number of wordlines that are associated with memory cells that have been programmed, wherein the determining further comprises detecting a pass voltage trip point value associated with a pass voltage applied to wordlines of the one or more strings.
Regarding claim 7, detecting, using pillar or string current sensing within the memory array, a pass voltage trip point value associated with a pass voltage applied to wordlines of one or more strings of the memory array; correlating the pass voltage trip point value to a range of trip point values to determine a number of wordlines associated with programmed memory cells of the one or more strings; and adjusting, based on the number of wordlines, a read level voltage for a selected wordline of the one or more strings that is to be read during a read operation.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHAMDAN N ALROBAIE whose telephone number is (571)270-7099. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Thursday (8AM till 6PM).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Richard Elms can be reached at (571) 272-1869. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Khamdan N. Alrobaie/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2824
