SK hynix Assigned Fourteen Patents

Storage device including buffer memory having common buffer for storing over-sized write data, and operating method
SK hynix Inc., Icheon, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11481146) developed by Noh, Jung Ki, Yang, Soon Yeal, Oh, Tae Jin, Icheon, Korea, for “storage device including a buffer memory having a common buffer for storing over-sized write data, and operating method thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage device includes a memory device including a plurality of memory areas respectively corresponding to a plurality of address groups each of which includes consecutive logical addresses provided by a host, a buffer memory including a common buffer and a plurality of zone buffers, the plurality of zone buffers respectively corresponding to the plurality of memory areas, and a memory controller for controlling the buffer memory to temporarily store write data corresponding to a logical address provided from the host in one of a zone buffer corresponding to the logical address and the common buffer according to whether a first size of the write data exceeds an available storage capa of the zone buffer, the available storage capa representing a size of an empty storage space of the zone buffer in which no data is stored.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-03-01 (17/189007).

Storage device managing bad block information of memory blocks and operating method
SK hynix Inc., Icheon, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11474721) developed by Kim, Dong Wook, Icheon-si, Korea, for “storage device managing bad block information of memory blocks and operating method thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage device for preventing occurrence of a read fail has a reduced overhead. The storage device includes a memory device with a plurality of memory blocks, and a memory controller for managing a fail block and a shared block as bad blocks. The fail block is determined to be a bad block among the plurality of memory blocks. The shared block is a memory block that shares a control signal for selecting the fail block in the memory device.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-07-01 (16/918689).

Storage device and operating method
SK hynix Inc., Icheon, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11474723) developed by Cho, Young Ick, Park, Byeong Gyu, and Hong, Sung Kwan, Icheon-si, Korea, for “storage device and operating method thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The storage device includes: a memory device including a plurality of user blocks and a system block, a buffer memory for storing a physical-to-logical table, and a memory controller for controlling the memory device to update map data stored in the system block, based on the physical-to-logical table, and to store the updated map data in the system block, after logical addresses of the physical-to-logical table are all allocated.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-04-05 (17/222751).

Storage device and operating method
SK hynix Inc., Icheon, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11474713) developed by Choi, Han, Kim, Dae Hee, Bae, Yong Gap, and Yang, Gak, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, for “storage device and operating method thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”There are provided a storage device and an operating method thereof. The storage device includes: a nonvolatile memory device including a system block for storing firmware data including a program code of firmware, a signature in which the program code is encoded, and an authentication key, a volatile memory device configured to store operational firmware data, and a memory controller configured to, when power is applied to the storage device, store the firmware data as the operational firmware data in the volatile memory device, perform a firmware validity test for detecting whether the operational firmware data and the firmware data matches each other, in response to a test event, and perform a reset operation based on a result of the firmware validity test.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-03-30 (17/217332).

Storage device and operating method
SK hynix Inc., Icheon-si Gyeonggi-do, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11467745) developed by Hong, Jiman, Icheon-si Gyeonggi-do, Korea, for “storage device and operating method thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A memory controller, for controlling a memory device including a plurality of memory blocks, includes a garbage collection controller configured to determine candidate blocks in which valid data is equal to or less than a predetermined ratio among the plurality of memory blocks, and configured to determine at least two or more memory blocks as victim blocks among the candidate blocks based on information on blocks that may be simultaneously erased among the plurality of memory blocks. The memory controller also includes an operation controller configured to control the memory device to copy valid data stored in the victim blocks to a different memory block.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-06-30 (16/917739).

NVM having resistance change memory layer
SK hynix Inc., Icheon-si Gyeonggi-do, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11469272) developed by Han, Jae Hyun, Icheon-si, Korea, Yoo, Hyangkeun, Seongnam-si, Korea, and Lee, Se Ho, Yongin-si, Korea, for a “nonvolatile memory device having resistance change memory layer.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A nonvolatile memory device according to an embodiment includes a substrate, a gate electrode structure disposed on the substrate, a gate dielectric layer covering at least a portion of a sidewall surface of the gate electrode structure on the substrate, a channel layer and a resistance change structure that are sequentially disposed on the gate dielectric layer, and a plurality of bit line structures disposed inside the resistance change structure.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-04-09 (16/844806).

Storage device and operating method
SK hynix Inc., Icheon-si Gyeonggi-do, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11467747) developed by Kim, Su Kyung, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, for “data storage device and operating method thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage device includes storage including a plurality of memory blocks and a controller configured to control operations of the plurality of memory blocks. The controller is configured to calculate a stress value of each of the plurality of memory blocks based on an erase completion count and an erase interruption count of the corresponding memory block.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-03-12 (17/249770).

Storage device for storing boot partition data read from memory device in buffer memory and method of operating
SK hynix Inc., Icheon-si, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11467768) developed by Lee, Jeong Woo, Icheon-si, Korea, for “data storage device for storing boot partition data read from memory device in buffer memory and method of operating the same.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Provided herein may be a data storage device and a method of operating the same. The data storage device having improved response speed may include a buffer memory configured to hold data, a memory device including a user area reserved for storing user data from a host and configured to be accessed by a first procedure, and a boot partition area reserved for storing boot partition data and configured to be accessed by a second procedure different from the first procedure and a memory controller coupled to and in communications with the buffer memory and memory device and configured to, upon receipt of power from a power supply, control the buffer memory and the memory device to perform a preloading operation by storing, in the buffer memory, part of boot partition data from the boot partition area before a request from the host is received.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-10-28 (17/082755).

Storage device, memory controller, and method for fetching write commands from submission queues to perform full page writes
SK hynix Inc., Icheon-si, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11461238) developed by Jang, Eun Soo, Icheon, Korea, for “storage device, memory controller, and method for fetching write commands from submission queues to perform full page writes.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A memory controller for controlling a plurality of memory chips of a non-volatile memory includes a first core configured to identify a size of a remaining space of a page to be written in a memory chip on which a write operation is to be performed among the plurality of memory chips and fetch a first write command from a first submission queue among a plurality of submission queues included in a host, the first write command being related to data having a size corresponding to that of the remaining space of the page to be written, and a second core configured to control the non-volatile memory to store data related to the fetched first write command in the remaining space of the page to be written.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-04-16 (16/851001).

3D NVM semiconductor and manufacturing method
SK hynix Inc., Icheon-si, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11462557) developed by Lee, Nam Jae, Cheongju-si, Korea, for “3D non-volatile memory semiconductor device and manufacturing method of the device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device are provided. The semiconductor device includes a source structure formed on a base, an etch prevention layer formed on the source structure, bit lines, a stack structure located between the etch prevention layer and the bit lines and including conductive layers and insulating layers that are alternately stacked on each other, and a channel structure passing through the stack structure and the etch prevention layer, wherein a lower portion of the channel structure is located in the source structure and a sidewall of the lower portion of the channel structure is in direct contact with the source structure.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-04-30 (16/863608).

Storage device including memory controller
SK hynix Inc., Icheon-si, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11461226) developed by Yang, Seung Won, Icheon-si, Korea, for a “storage device including memory controller.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A memory controller having improved reliability and performance controls an operation of a memory device. The memory controller includes a first core configured to receive requests from a host, each request received with a corresponding first logical address associated with data requested from the host and having a first size, and to perform a logical address processing operation of converting the first logical address into a second logical address having a second size different from the first size, and a second core configured to convert the second logical address into a physical address to or from which the data is to be written or read, the physical address representing a position of a memory cell included in the memory device.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-07-01 (16/918962).

Storage device and operating method
SK hynix Inc., Gyeonggi-do, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11461227) developed by You, Byoung Sung, Seoul, Korea, for “storage device and operating method thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage device for performing a garbage collection operation using a partial block erase operation includes: a memory device including a plurality of main blocks each including a plurality of sub-blocks, and a memory controller configured to perform a garbage collection operation for securing free blocks in which no data is stored, among the main blocks, wherein the memory controller includes a write handler configured to erase at least a portion of a target block, among the main blocks, according to whether an amount of valid data in at least one victim block exceeds a storage capa of one main block.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-09-10 (17/016945).

Storage device and method of operating
SK hynix Inc., Icheon-si, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11461051) developed by Hwang, Jun Sun, Lee, Jung Hwan, and Shon, Kwan Su, Icheon-si, Korea, for “storage device and method of operating the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The present technology relates to an electronic device. A storage device in which a memory device controls an ODT operation to improve operation performance of the memory device with a small number of pins includes a plurality of memory devices comprising a target memory device in which an operation is performed and non-target memory devices, and a memory controller configured to control the plurality of memory devices. Each of the plurality of memory devices includes an on die termination (ODT) flag generator configured to generate a flag that indicates that an ODT operation is possible for the non-target memory devices, and an ODT performer configured to determine whether the ODT operation is an ODT read operation for a read operation or an ODT write operation for a write operation based on the flag and configured to generate an enable signal that enables the ODT read operation or the ODT write operation.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-02-23 (17/183003).

Storage device and method of operating
SK hynix Inc., Gyeonggi-do, Korea, has been assigned a patent (11461177) developed by Lee, Hyoung Lee, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, for “data storage device and method of operating the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage device may include a storage and a controller. The storage configured to store data. The controller configured to perform a normal read operation based on a default read voltage in accordance with a read request of a host device and to perform a read retry operation using at least one retry read voltage when the normal read operation fails. The controller may comprises a hit ratio table configured to store read success records as hit ratios of retry read voltages in association with workloads, each workload being associated with a set of retry read voltages, and a read voltage determiner configured to determine the workload when the normal read operation fails and to select the set of retry read voltages associated with the determined workload, the retry read voltages in the selected set being ordered from a highest hit ratio to a lowest hit ratio.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-08-27 (17/004230).