Methods, systems, and devices for imprint recovery for memory cells are described. In some cases, memory cells may become imprinted, which may refer to conditions where a cell becomes predisposed toward storing one logic state over another, resistant to being written to a different logic state, or both. Imprinted memory cells may be recovered using a recovery or repair process that may be initiated according to various conditions, detections, or inferences. In some examples, a system may be configured to perform imprint recovery operations that are scaled or selected according to a characterized severity of imprint, an operational mode, environmental conditions, and other factors. Imprint management techniques may increase the robustness, accuracy, or efficiency with which a memory system, or components thereof, can operate in the presence of conditions associated with memory cell imprinting.

A memory circuit which includes: A synchronous memory cell array, configured to receive a clock signal and having address lines and bit lines. A margin agent, determining a status of the synchronous memory cell array based on a time duration between a transition of the clock signal and a change on a signal derived from a bit line due to a signaling on at least one of the address lines. In another aspect, a memory cell, having a bit line configured to provide data input/output to the memory cell may be provided with a comparator, comparing a voltage on the bit line with a reference voltage and indicating of a status of the memory cell thereby. Firmware may receive the indication of the status of a memory cell array, and transmit the indication, issue an alert, and/or reconfigure the memory circuit responsive to the status.

Technologies for performing a quick reliability scan include, for a particular block of a set of blocks of different block types. Each block of the set of blocks includes pages of memory of a physical memory device. A subset of the pages of the block is identified. The block is scanned by scanning the subset of the plurality of pages of the block for a fold condition. A page of the subset of the plurality of pages is determined to have the fold condition. After the set of blocks has been scanned, the folding of the block that includes the page that has been determined to have the fold condition is requested.

Methods and systems for testing memory systems are disclosed. A refresh rate for a test system including a number of memory devices may be controlled based on estimated power scenario of a memory system design. In response to performance of a number of refresh operations on the memory devices and based on the refresh rate, one or more conditions of the test system may be monitored to generate estimated performance data for the memory system design.

Embodiments of the present application provide a method and apparatus for determining a refresh counter of a DRAM. The method includes: writing data to a target memory cell connected with a target word line in the DRAM, and controlling the DRAM to perform refreshes starting from a preset word line according to a preset rule; determining, according to whether the data can be read accurately from the target memory cell after the refreshes, an intermediate refresh counter of refreshes on the target word line; and controlling, based on the intermediate refresh counter, the DRAM to perform refreshes starting from the target word line according to the preset rule, and determining the refresh counter of the DRAM according to whether the data can be read accurately from the target memory cell after the refreshes.

The present disclosure provides a method for detecting a memory and a device for detecting a memory. The memory includes first memory cells, second memory cells, bit lines, complementary bit lines, word lines, and a plurality of sense amplifiers, where each of the sense amplifiers is electrically coupled to a bit line and a complementary bit line; and the method includes: writing storage data into each of the first memory cells and each of the second memory cells; performing a read operation; obtaining a test result based on a difference between real data and the storage data; and obtaining a leakage position of the bit line and the word line or a leakage position the complementary bit line and the word line based on the test result.

The present disclosure provides a test method and a test apparatus for a semiconductor device. The test method includes: forming a plurality of test values based on a first retention time range and a first step size, and sequentially testing a plurality of memory cells in the semiconductor device based on the plurality of test values in ascending order; determining, during tests corresponding to each test value, a memory cell whose retention time is less than the test value, and recording a position and corresponding test value of the memory cell whose retention time is less than the test value, to form first test data; a similar method is applied to form second test data; and determining, based on the first test data and the second test data, positions and corresponding test values of memory cells whose retention times fail to pass the tests.

The present disclosure relates to the field of integrated circuit technologies, and provides a method and device for testing an SR cycle as well as a method and device for testing an AR number. The method for testing an SR cycle includes: executing a preset number of data-retention-capacity acquisition steps, the data-retention-capacity acquisition step including determining a preset refresh time; sending an SR entry command to control a memory to enter an SR operation; sending an SR exit command to control the memory to exit the SR operation after the memory executes the SR for the preset refresh time; detecting a current data retention capacity of the memory; obtaining a cycle of a function of the data retention capacity with respect to the corresponding preset refresh time; and determining the SR cycle of the memory with the cycle of the function.

A memory apparatus and method of operation are provided. The apparatus includes memory cells connected to one of a plurality of word lines and arranged in strings and configured to retain a threshold voltage corresponding to one of a plurality of memory states. A control circuit is coupled to the plurality of word lines and strings and is configured to erase the memory cells using a stripe erase operation in response to determining a cycle count is less than a predetermined cycle count maximum threshold. The control circuit is also configured to perform a dummy cycle operation in response to determining the cycle count is not less than the predetermined cycle count maximum threshold.

A method of testing a non-volatile memory (NVM) array includes obtaining a current distribution of a subset of NVM cells of the NVM array, the current distribution including first and second portions corresponding to respective logically high and low states of the subset of NVM cells, programming an entirety of the NVM cells of the NVM array to one of the logically high or low states, determining an initial bit error rate (BER) by performing first and second pass/fail (P/F) tests on each NVM cell of the NVM array, and using the current distribution to adjust the initial BER rate. Each of obtaining the current distribution, programming the entirety of the NVM cells, and performing the first and second P/F tests is performed while the NVM array is heated to a target temperature.