Patent ID: 8908443

Claim:
A method for performing a self-refresh operation in a storage device, the method comprising: performing the following in a storage device after the storage device is powered by a host, wherein the storage device has a non-volatile memory comprising a silicon substrate and a plurality of memory cells forming at least two memory layers vertically disposed with respect to each other to form a monolithic three-dimensional structure, wherein at least one memory layer is vertically disposed with respect to the silicon substrate: determining whether to perform a self-refresh operation on data that was stored in the non-volatile memory before the storage device was powered by the host; and in response to determining to perform the self-refresh operation, performing the self-refresh operation internally in the storage device by reading the data from the non-volatile memory of the storage device and writing the data back to the non-volatile memory of the storage device, wherein the storage device only needs to receive power from the host to perform the self-refresh operation.