Abstract: Techniques are disclosed herein for determining whether there is a defect that occurred as a result of programming non-volatile storage elements. Example defects include: broken word lines, control gate to substrate shorts, word line to word line shorts, double writes, etc. The memory cells may be programmed such that there will be a substantially even distribution of the memory cells in different data states. After programming, the memory cells are sensed at one or more reference levels. Two sub-groups of memory cells are strategically formed based on the sensing to enable detection of defects in a simple and efficient manner. The sub-groups may have a certain degree of separation of the data states to avoid missing a defect. The number of memory cells in one sub-group is compared with the other. If there is a significant imbalance between the two sub-groups, then a defect is detected.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed herein for determining whether there is a defect that occurred as a result of programming non-volatile storage elements. Example defects include: broken word lines, control gate to substrate shorts, word line to word line shorts, double writes, etc. The memory cells may be programmed such that there will be a substantially even distribution of the memory cells in different data states. After programming, the memory cells are sensed at one or more reference levels. Two sub-groups of memory cells are strategically formed based on the sensing to enable detection of defects in a simple and efficient manner. The sub-groups may have a certain degree of separation of the data states to avoid missing a defect. The number of memory cells in one sub-group is compared with the other. If there is a significant imbalance between the two sub-groups, then a defect is detected.

Abstract: Methods and devices for recovering data stored in a non-volatile storage device are provided. Data may be recovered for memory cells associated with a word line that cannot be read using ECC that was calculated based on the data stored on that word line. This allows recovery for situations such as a word line shorting to the substrate or two adjacent word lines shorting together. When programming memory cells associated with a group of word lines, parity bits may be calculated and stored in memory cells associated with an additional word line in the memory device. When reading memory cells associated with one of the word lines in the group, an otherwise unrecoverable error may occur. By knowing which word line is defective, its data may be recovered using the parity bits and the data of all of the other word lines in the group.

Abstract: Methods and devices for recovering data stored in a non-volatile storage device are provided. Data may be recovered for memory cells associated with a word line that cannot be read using ECC that was calculated based on the data stored on that word line. This allows recovery for situations such as a word line shorting to the substrate or two adjacent word lines shorting together. When programming memory cells associated with a group of word lines, parity bits may be calculated and stored in memory cells associated with an additional word line in the memory device. When reading memory cells associated with one of the word lines in the group, an otherwise unrecoverable error may occur. By knowing which word line is defective, its data may be recovered using the parity bits and the data of all of the other word lines in the group.