Methods, systems, and devices for techniques for retiring blocks of a memory system are described. In some examples, aspects of a memory system or memory device may be configured to determine an error for a block of memory cells. Upon determining the occurrence of the error, the memory system may identify one or more operating conditions associated with the block. For example, the memory system may determine a temperature of the block, a cycle count of the block, a quantity of times the block has experienced an error, a bit error rate of the block, and/or a quantity of available blocks in the associated system. Depending on whether a criteria associated with a respective operating condition is satisfied, the block may be enabled or retired.

A storage system has a memory with a multi-level cell (MLC) block and a partially-bad single-level cell (SLC) block. The storage system repurposes the partially-bad SLC block as a non-volatile read cache for data stored in the MLC block (e.g., cold data that is read relatively frequently) to improve performance of host reads. Because the original version of the data is still stored in the MLC block, the original version of the data can be read if there is an error in the copy of the data stored in the partially-bad SLC block, thus avoiding the need for extensive error-correction handling to account for the poor reliability of the partially-bad SLC block.

A method of failure mapping is provided. The method includes determining that a non-volatile memory block in the memory has a defect and generating a mask that indicates the non-volatile memory block and the defect. The method includes reading from the non-volatile memory block with application of the mask, wherein the reading and the application of the mask are performed by the non-volatile solid-state storage.

A memory apparatus and method of operation is provided. The apparatus has blocks each including non-volatile storage elements. Each of the non-volatile storage elements stores a threshold voltage representative of an element data. The apparatus also includes one or more managing circuits configured to erase at least one of the blocks in an erase operation and program the element data in a program operation. The one or more managing circuits are also configured to proactively identify ones of the blocks as potential bad blocks and selectively apply stress to the ones of the blocks identified as the potential bad blocks and determine whether the potential bad blocks should be retired from the erase and program operations and put in a grown bad block pool or released to a normal block pool used for the erase and program operations based on a judgment after selectively applying the stress.

Several embodiments of memory devices and systems having a variable logical memory capacity are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a memory device can include a plurality of memory regions that collectively define a physical memory capacity and a controller operably coupled to the plurality of memory regions. The controller is configured to advertise a first logical memory capacity to a host device, determine that at least one of the memory regions is at or near end of life, and in response to the determination—send a notification to the host device that a logical memory capacity of the memory device will be reduced and then retire the at least one of the memory regions.

A semiconductor memory and a method for density configuration of a bank of the semiconductor memory are provided. The method includes: determining a target bank to be configured of the semiconductor memory; determining a density configuration parameter of the target bank, the density configuration parameter being configured to represent a density to be configured for the target bank; determining a target code from a set of codes of the target bank based on the density configuration parameter of the target bank, the target code corresponding to a storage region to be trimmed in the target bank; generating, based on the target code, a region selection signal configured to select the storage region to be trimmed in the target bank; and trimming the storage region to be trimmed based on the region selection signal to configure the density of the target bank.

A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of planes defined in a plurality of chip regions; and a rescue circuit configured to disable a failed plane and enable a normal plane from among the plurality of planes, wherein the semiconductor memory device operates with only normal planes that are enabled.

A memory controller includes a memory interface and a processor. The processor is coupled to the memory interface and controls access operation of a memory device via the memory interface. The processor maintains a predetermined table according to write operation of a first memory block of the memory device and performs data protection in response to the write operation. When performing the data protection, the processor determines whether memory space damage has occurred in the first memory block. When it is determined that memory space damage has occurred in the first memory block, the processor traces back one or more data sources of data written in the first memory block according to the predetermined table to obtain address information of one or more source memory blocks and performs a data recovery operation according to the address information of the one or more source memory blocks.

According to one embodiment, there is provided a memory system including a non-volatile memory and a controller. The non-volatile memory includes a plurality of physical blocks. The controller is connected to any of the plurality of physical blocks via a plurality of channels. The controller is configured to construct a plurality of logical blocks and, read or write data from or into any of the plurality of logical blocks constructed. The logical blocks are management units in which any of the physical blocks is grouped across the plurality of channels. The controller is configured to construct the plurality of logical blocks so that a first number of defective blocks and a second number of pseudo defective blocks for shortfall defective blocks with respect to a target number of defective blocks are distributed into the plurality of logical blocks.

Performing refresh operation in a memory device is provided. A refresh operation without address rotation is performed in a cell array of the memory device. Performing the refresh operation without address rotation is repeated for a predetermined number of times. After repeating performing the refresh operation with address rotation for the predetermined number of times, a refresh operation with address rotation is performed in the cell array.