• Journal of KIISE
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• v.44 no.11
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• pp.1130-1137
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• 2017

The multi-leveling technique that stores multiple bits in a single memory cell has significantly improved the density of NAND flash memory along with shrinking processes. However, because of the side effects of the multi-leveling technique, the average write performance of MLC NAND flash memory is degraded more than twice that of SLC NAND flash memory. In this paper, we introduce existing cross-layer optimization techniques proposed to improve the performance of MLC NAND flash-based storages, and propose a new integration technique that overcomes the limitations of existing techniques by exploiting their complementarity. By fully exploiting the performance asymmetry in MLC NAND flash devices at the flash translation layer, the proposed technique can handle many write requests with the performance of SLC NAND flash devices, thus significantly improving the performance of NAND flash-based storages. Experimental results show that the proposed technique improves performance 39% on average over individual techniques.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.88-93
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• 2024

To evaluate the possibility as a multi-level memory medium for the Ge₂Sb₂Te₅/TiN/W-doped Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ cell structure, the crystallization rate and stabilization characteristics according to voltage (V)- and current (I)- pulse sweeping were investigated. In the cell structures prepared by a magnetron sputtering system on a p-type Si (100) substrate, the Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ and W-doped Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ thin films were separated by a barrier metal, TiN, and the individual thicknesses were varied, but the total thickness was fixed at 200 nm. All cell structures exhibited relatively stable multi-level states of high-middle-low resistance (HR-MR-LR), which guarantee the reliability of the multilevel phase-change random access memory (PRAM). The amorphousto-multilevel crystallization rate was evaluated from a graph of resistance (R) vs. pulse duration (T) obtained by the nanoscaled pulse sweeping at a fixed applied voltage (12 V). For all structures, the phase-change rates of HR→MR and MR→LR were estimated to be approximately t<20 ns and t<40 ns, respectively, and the states were relatively stable. We believe that the doublestack structure of an appropriate Ge-Sb-Te film separated by barrier metal (TiN) can be optimized for high-speed and stable multilevel PRAM.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.429-434
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• 2015

Resistance switching memory cells were fabricated using atomically dispersed Pt-$SiO_2$ thin film prepared via RF co-sputtering. The memory cell can switch between a low-resistance-state and a high-resistance-state reversibly and reproducibly through applying alternate voltage polarities. Percolated conducting paths are the origin of the low-resistance-state, while trapping electrons in the negative U-center in the Pt-$SiO_2$ interface cause the high-resistance-state. Intermediate resistance-states are obtained through controlling the compliance current, which can be applied to multi-level operation for high memory density. It is found that the resistance value is related to the capacitance of the memory cell: a 265-fold increase in resistance induces a 2.68-fold increase in capacitance. The exponential growth model of the conducting paths can explain the quantitative relationship of resistance-capacitance. The model states that the conducting path generated in the early stage requires a larger area than that generated in the last stage, which results in a larger decrease in the capacitance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.53-56
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• 2004

This paper presents the improved burn-in method for the reliability of SRAM in MCP Semiconductor reliability is commonly improved through the burn-in process. Reliability problem is more significant in the Multi Chip Package, because of including over two devices in a package. In the SRAM-based Multi Chip Package, the failure of SRAM has a large effect on the yield and quality of the other chips - Flash Memory, DRAM, etc. So, the quality of SRAM must be guaranteed. To improve the quality of SRAM, we applied the improved wafer level burn-in process using multi cell selection method in addition to the current used methods. That method is effective in detecting special failure. Finally, with the composition of some kinds of methods, we could achieve the high qualify of SRAM in Multi Chip Package.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.506-509
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• 2005

This paper presents the improved burn-in method for the reliability of SRAM in Multi Chip Package (MCP). Semiconductor reliability is commonly improved by the burn-in process. Reliability Problem is very significant in the MCP which includes over two chips in a package because the failure of one SRAM chip has a large influence on the yield and quality of the other chips such as Flash Memory, DRAM, etc. Therefore the quality of SRAM must be guaranteed. To improve the qualify of SRAM, we applied the improved wafer level burn-in process using multi cell selection method in addition to the previously used methods and it is found to be effective in detecting particular failures. Finally, with the composition of some kinds of methods, we achieved the high quality of SRAM in MCP.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.239-245
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• 2013

The data retention characteristics depending on neighbor cell's threshold voltage (Vt) in a multilevel NAND flash memory is studied. It is found that a Vt shift (${\Delta}Vt$) of the noted cell during a thermal retention test is increased as the number of erase-state (lowest Vt state) cells surrounding the noted cell increases. It is because a charge loss from a floating gate is originated from not only intrinsic mechanism but also lateral electric field between the neighboring cells. From the electric field simulation, we can find that the electric field is increased and it results in the increased charge loss as the device is scaled down.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.39A no.3
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• pp.127-139
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• 2014

In this paper, we present two signal processing techniques for designing binary error correction codes for Multi-Level Cell(MLC) NAND flash memory. MLC NAND flash memory saves the non-binary symbol at each cell and shows asymmetric channel LLR l-density which makes it difficult to design soft-decision binary error correction codes such as LDPC codes and Polar codes. Therefore, we apply density mirroring and EM algorithm for approximating the MLC NAND flash memory channel to the binary-input memoryless channel. The density mirroring processes channel LLRs to satisfy roughly all-zero codeword assumption, and then EM algorithm is applied to l-density after density mirroring for approximating it to mixture of symmetric Gaussian densities. These two signal processing techniques make it possible to use conventional code design algorithms, such as density evolution and EXIT chart, for MLC NAND flash memory channel.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.147-155
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• 2017

A new endurance test-pattern generation on NAND-flash memory is proposed to improve test cost. We mainly focus on the correlation between the data-pattern and the device error-rate during endurance testing. The novelty is the development of testing method using quasi-random pattern based on device architectures in order to increase the test efficiency during time-consuming endurance testing. It has been proven by the experiments using the commercial 32 nm NAND flash-memory. Using the proposed method, the error-rate increases up to 18.6% compared to that of the conventional method which uses pseudo-random pattern. Endurance testing time using the proposed quasi-random pattern is faster than that of using the conventional pseudo-random pattern since it is possible to reach the target error rate quickly using the proposed one. Accordingly, the proposed method provides more low-cost testing solutions compared to the previous pseudo-random testing patterns.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.38C no.6
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• pp.540-549
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• 2013

An adaptive non-uniform quantization scheme is proposed for soft-decision error correction in NAND flash memory. Even though the conventional maximizing mutual information (MMI) quantizer shows the optimal post-FEC (forward error correction) bit error rate (BER) performance, this quantization scheme demands heavy computational overheads due to the exhaustive search to find the optimal parameter values. The proposed quantization scheme has a simple structure that is constructed by only six parameters, and the optimal values of them are found by maximizing the mutual information between the input and the output symbols. It is demonstrated that the proposed quantization scheme improves the BER performance of soft-decision decoding with only small computational overheads.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.54-62
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• 2015

Although NAND flash-based SSD (Solid-State Drive) provides superior performance in comparison to HDD (Hard Disk Drive), it has a major drawback in write endurance. As a result, the lifetime of SSD is determined by the workload and thus it becomes a big challenge in current technology trend of such as the shifting from SLC (Single Level Cell) to MLC (Multi Level cell) and even TLC (Triple Level Cell). Most previous studies have dealt with wear-leveling or improving SSD lifetime regarding hardware architecture. In this paper, we propose the optimal configuration of host I/O stack focusing on file system, I/O scheduler, and link power management using JEDEC enterprise workloads in terms of WAF (Write Amplification Factor) which represents the efficiency perspective of SSD life time especially for host write processing into flash memory. Experimental analysis shows that the optimum configuration of I/O stack for the perspective of SSD lifetime is MinPower-Dead-XFS which prolongs the lifetime of SSD approximately 2.6 times in comparison with MaxPower-Cfq-Ext4, the best performance combination. Though the performance was reduced by 13%, this contributions demonstrates a considerable aspect of SSD lifetime in relation to I/O stack optimization.