SK hynix and Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Assigned Patent

SK hynix Inc., Icheon, Korea, and Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Madison, WI, has been assigned a patent (11768617) developed by Kim, Younghyun, Lee, Yongwoo, Park, Jaehyun, Madison, WI, and Ryu, Junhee, Seoul, korea, for “managing method for flash storage and storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A managing method for a flash storage includes: sorting a plurality of blocks within the flash storage into precise blocks and imprecise blocks, and managing the sorted blocks as a plurality of free block pools. The management includes performing garbage collection and wear leveling, and the wear leveling is performed based on CEW (Cumulative Effective Wearing), the CEW indicating cumulative cell damage induced by performing a plurality of operations on a specific block. A storage system includes a memory array, and a memory controller sorting a plurality of blocks of the memory array based on error rates, applying erase voltages corresponding to the error rates, respectively, when data stored in the blocks are erased, controlling each of the erase voltages to have a value scaled down from a standard voltage, and performing incremental step pulse programming on one or more of the blocks.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-07-02 (17/367026).