Patents by Inventor Michael Sheperek

Michael Sheperek has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11675509
    Abstract: An example memory sub-system includes a memory device and a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory device. The processing device is configured to open a first block family associated with the memory device; assign a first cursor of a plurality of cursors of the memory device to the first block family; responsive to programming a first block associated with the first cursor, associate the first block with the first block family; open, while the first block family is open, a second block family associated with the memory device; assign a second cursor of the plurality of cursors of the memory device to the second block family; and responsive to programming a second block associated with the second cursor, associate the second block with the second block family.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Shane Nowell, Michael Sheperek, Larry J Koudele, Bruce A Liikanen, Steve Kientz
  • Patent number: 11669380
    Abstract: One or more of multiple metrics for multiple logical page types of the memory device are determined. Each of the metrics is indicative of a number of bit errors associated with a particular logical page type of the multiple logical page types. A current page margin associated with a first logical page type of the multiple logical page types is modified to determine a modified page margin based at least in part on a ratio using one or more of the multiple metrics. The current page margin associated with the first logical page type is adjusted in accordance with the modified page margin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele, Bruce A. Liikanen
  • Patent number: 11664080
    Abstract: A system includes a memory device having a plurality of dice and A processing device to perform operations, including determining a representative number of program-erase cycles performed across the plurality of dice. The operations further include tracking the representative number of program-erase cycles over time. The operations further include, in response to the representative number of program-erase cycles satisfying a first threshold criterion, adding an additional threshold voltage offset bin to a plurality of threshold voltage offset bins for the memory device, wherein each of the plurality of threshold voltage offset bins comprises a corresponding window of time after program of data to the memory device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Mustafa N. Kaynak, Steven Michael Kientz
  • Publication number: 20230153003
    Abstract: A system includes a memory device and a processing device to initialize a block family associated with the memory device and a timer at initialization of the block family. The processing device further stores, in non-volatile memory of the memory device, a value of the timer before powering down the system while the block family is still open. The processing device further detects a power on of the system and measures a data state metric associated with one or more memory cell of a page of the memory device that is associated with the block family. The processing device further compares a level of the data state metric to a temporal voltage shift function to estimate a time after program value of the page and increments the value of the timer, restored from the non-volatile memory, based on the time after program value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 18, 2023
    Publication date: May 18, 2023
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele, Bruce A. Liikanen, Steven Michael Kientz, Kishore Kumar Muchherla
  • Patent number: 11651828
    Abstract: Described herein are embodiments related to first-pass dynamic program targeting (DPT) operations on memory cells of memory systems. A method includes determining that a first programming pass of a programming operation has been performed on a memory cell of the memory component, and performing a dynamic program targeting (DPT) operation on the memory cell to calibrate a first program-verify (PV) target value that results in an adjustment to a placement of a first first-pass programming distribution and a second PV target value that results in an adjustment to a placement of a second first-pass programming distribution before a second programming pass of the programming operation is performed on the memory cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele, Bruce A. Liikanen
  • Patent number: 11636913
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system that comprises a memory device and a processing device, operatively coupled with the memory device, to perform operations that include, responsive to detecting a triggering event, selecting a family of memory blocks of the memory device, the selected family being associated with a set of bins, each bin associated with a plurality of read voltage offsets to be applied to base read voltages during read operations. The operations performed by the processing device further include calibration operations to determine data state metric values characterizing application of read voltage offsets of various bins. The operations performed by the processing device further include identifying, based on the determined data state metrics, a target bin and associating the selected family with the target bin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Bruce A. Liikanen, Steven Michael Kientz
  • Publication number: 20230115960
    Abstract: A method includes associating, by a processing device, a set of dies of a block family with a die family, wherein the block family is associated with a first threshold voltage offset bin for voltage offsets to be applied in a read operation; and responsive to detecting a triggering event, associating each die of the set of dies with a second threshold voltage offset bin for voltage offsets to be applied in a read operation, wherein the second threshold voltage offset bin is selected based on a representative die of the set of dies associated with the die family.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2022
    Publication date: April 13, 2023
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Bruce A. Liikanen, Steve Kientz, Anita Ekren, Gerald Cadloni
  • Patent number: 11625177
    Abstract: An example memory sub-system includes a memory device and a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory device. The processing device is configured to initiate a scan process on a plurality of block families of the memory device; responsive to determining, based on the scan process, that a first block family of the plurality of block families and a second block family of the plurality of block families meet a combining criterion, merge the first block family and the second block family; and responsive to determining that a terminating condition has been satisfied, terminate the scan process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Shane Nowell, Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele, Vamsi Pavan Rayaprolu
  • Patent number: 11609706
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to placement of samples of a read sample offset operation in a memory sub-system. A processing device determines a shape of a valley to be subject to a read sample offset operation, where the valley corresponds to at least one programming distribution of a memory sub-system. The processing device selects a sampling rule from a set of sampling rules based on the shape of the valley. The processing device executes the read sample offset operation in accordance with the sampling rule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Bruce A. Liikanen, Larry Koudele
  • Patent number: 11600354
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system including a memory device having a plurality of physical cells and a processing device, operatively coupled with the memory device, to perform operations that include selecting, responsive to detecting a power event, a subset of a plurality of memory cells of the memory device, the memory device being characterized by auxiliary read metadata identifying one or more read offsets for each of the plurality of memory cells, the one or more read offsets representing corrections to read signals applied to the respective memory cell during a read operation. The operations further include performing one or more diagnostic read operations for each of the subset of the plurality of memory cells of the memory device and modifying the auxiliary read metadata by updating the one or more read offsets for at least some of the plurality of memory cells of the memory device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Bruce A. Liikanen, Steven Michael Kientz
  • Patent number: 11600333
    Abstract: A first logical page type and a second logical page type each comprising a plurality of programming distributions of a memory device are identified. A determination is made that the bit error rate (BER) for the first logical page type is less than a BER for the second logical page type. A set of rules corresponding to a determination that the BER for the first logical page type is less than the BER for the second logical page type is identified. A program targeting rule of the set of rules is determined based on a valley between an erase distribution and a programming distribution adjacent to the erase distribution having a lowest valley margin of a plurality of valley margins corresponding to the plurality of programming distributions of the memory device. Based on the program targeting rule, a program targeting operation is performed to adjust a voltage associated with one or more programming distributions of the memory device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Bruce A. Liikanen, Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele
  • Publication number: 20230054653
    Abstract: Described herein are embodiments related to first-pass continuous read level calibration (cRLC) operations on memory cells of memory systems. A processing device determines that a first programming pass of a programming operation has been performed on a memory cell of a memory component. The processing device then adjusts a read level threshold of the memory cell to be centered between a first programming distribution and a second programming distribution before the second programming pass of the programming operation is performed on the memory cell.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 7, 2022
    Publication date: February 23, 2023
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele, Bruce A. Liikanen
  • Patent number: 11573720
    Abstract: A includes a memory device and a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory device. The processing device is to: initialize a block family associated with the memory device; initialize a timer at initialization of the block family; and aggregate temperature values received from sensor(s) of the memory device over time to generate an aggregate temperature. Responsive to programming a page residing on the memory device, the processing device associates the page with the block family. The processing device closes the block family in response to the aggregate temperature being greater than a first temperature value and the timer reaching a first time value. The processing device closes the block family in response to the aggregate temperature being less than or equal to the first temperature value and the timer reaching a second time value that is greater than the first time value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele, Bruce A. Liikanen, Steven Michael Kientz, Kishore Kumar Muchherla
  • Publication number: 20230012855
    Abstract: A method can include receiving a request to read data from a block of a memory device, identifying a block family associated with the block of the memory device, identifying a voltage distribution parameter value associated with the block family, wherein the voltage distribution parameter value reflects an aggregate value of a corresponding voltage distribution associated with a plurality of memory cells of the block family, and determining a set of read levels associated with the voltage distribution parameter value, wherein each read level in the set of read levels corresponds to a respective voltage distribution of at least one memory cell comprised by the block of the memory device. The block family can be identified using a data structure that maps block identifiers to corresponding block family identifiers. The voltage distribution parameter value can be identified using a data structure that maps block family identifiers to corresponding voltage parameter values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2022
    Publication date: January 19, 2023
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Kishore Kumar Muchherla, Shane Nowell, Mustafa N. Kaynak, Larry J. Koudele
  • Patent number: 11545227
    Abstract: A measure associated with a characteristic of a die of a memory device is obtained. It is determined whether the measure satisfies a first criterion to group one or more die into a first die family. If it is determined that the measure satisfies the first criterion, the die is associated with the first die family.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Bruce A. Liikanen, Steve Kientz, Anita Ekren, Gerald Cadloni
  • Publication number: 20220406381
    Abstract: A processing device determines a target bit error rate corresponding to a point of a first programming voltage distribution level corresponding to memory cells of a memory sub-system and a second programming voltage distribution corresponding to the memory cells of the memory sub-system. An offset voltage level corresponding to the point at the target bit error rate is selected. A first portion of a first group of the memory cells in the first programming voltage distribution level is programmed at a threshold voltage level to set a first embedded data value. A second portion of a second group of the memory cells in the second programming voltage distribution level is programmed at the threshold voltage level offset by the offset voltage level to set a second embedded data value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2022
    Publication date: December 22, 2022
    Inventors: Bruce A. Liikanen, Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele
  • Publication number: 20220391143
    Abstract: A memory device includes a processing device configured to iteratively update a center read level according to a first step size after reading a subset of memory cells according to a set of read levels including the center read level; track an update direction for the processing device to use when iteratively updating the center read level, wherein the update direction corresponds to an increase or a decrease in the center read level; detect a change condition based on updating the center read level according to the first step size; and iteratively update the center read level according to a second step size based on detection of the change condition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2022
    Publication date: December 8, 2022
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele, Steve Kientz
  • Publication number: 20220366997
    Abstract: A system can include a memory device and a processing device to perform operations that include determining a calibration scan frequency based on an amount of elapsed time since a previous write operation performed on the memory device, determining, based on the calibration scan frequency, whether one or more scan criteria are satisfied, responsive to determining that the one or more scan criteria are satisfied, identifying one or more block families, and calibrating one or more bin pointers of each of the identified block families, wherein the calibrating comprises: for each of the identified block families, updating each of the one or more bin pointers of the identified block family based on a data state metric of at least one block of the identified block family.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2022
    Publication date: November 17, 2022
    Inventors: Vamsi Pavan Rayaprolu, Shane Nowell, Michael Sheperek, Steven Michael Kientz
  • Patent number: 11495322
    Abstract: Described herein are embodiments related to first-pass continuous read level calibration (cRLC) operations on memory cells of memory systems. A processing device determines that a first programming pass of a programming operation has been performed on a memory cell of a memory component. The processing device performs a cRLC operation on the memory cell to calibrate a read level threshold between a first first-pass programming distribution and a second first-pass programming distribution before a second programming pass of the programming operation is performed on the memory cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele, Bruce A. Liikanen
  • Publication number: 20220350718
    Abstract: A system includes a memory device and a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory device. The processing device is to perform operations, including initializing a block family associated with the memory device; aggregating temperature values received from one or more temperature sensors of the memory device over time to determine an aggregate temperature; responsive to beginning to program a block residing on the memory device, associating the block with the block family; and in response to the aggregate temperature being greater than or equal to a specified threshold temperature value: performing a soft closure of the block family; initializing an extension timer; continuing to program data to the block; and performing a hard closure of the block family in response to one of the extension timer reaching an extension time value or the block family satisfying a hard closure criteria.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 19, 2022
    Publication date: November 3, 2022
    Inventors: Michael Sheperek, Larry J. Koudele, Steven S. Williams