Patent ID: 9536600
Date: 2017-01-03
CPC Classifications: G11C

Claim:
1. A method, in a non-volatile flash memory device comprising a non-volatile flash memory and a memory controller, for controlling an operation of the non-volatile flash memory device, the method comprising: receiving, by the non-volatile flash memory device, a single combined memory command for accessing the non-volatile flash memory, wherein each cell of the non-volatile flash memory physically stores three or more bits per cell and has at least eight possible threshold voltage distribution states; decoding, by the non-volatile flash memory device, a row address and a column address for a word-line to be accessed by the single combined memory command; and accessing, by the non-volatile flash memory device, the word-line such that at least a most significant bit (MSB) page, a least significant bit (LSB) page, and at least one other significant bit page are accessed simultaneously, wherein the access to the word-line is selected from the group consisting of a programming of the word-line and a read of the word-line, wherein the programming of the word-line comprises determining, by the non-volatile flash memory device, a target voltage state for each memory cell of the word-line by accessing at least MSB data, LSB data, and at least one other significant bit of data that is to be programmed to the word-line; and programming, by the non-volatile flash memory device, each memory cell of the word-line according to the determined target voltage states, wherein the read of the word-line comprises determining, by the non-volatile flash memory device, a voltage state of each memory cell of the word-line; and reading out, by the non-volatile flash memory device, the voltage states such that at least the MSB portion of the voltage state is written to an MSB page buffer, the LSB portion of the voltage state is written to an LSB page buffer, and the at least one other significant bit portion of the voltage state is written to at least one other significant bit page buffer, and wherein the access to the word-line is selected from the group consisting of: