An Equalizing Algorithm for Cell-to-Cell Interference Reduction in MLC NAND Flash Memory

Abstract

This paper presents an equalizer reducing CCI(cell-to-cell interference) in MLC NAND flash memory. High growth of the flash memory market has been driven by two combined technological efforts that are an aggressive scaling technique which doubles the memory density every year and the introduction of MLC(multi level cell) technology. Therefore, the CCI is a critical factor which affects occurring data errors in cells. We introduced an equation of CCI model and designed an equalizer reducing CCI based on the proposed equation. In the model, we have been considered the floating gate capacitance coupling effect, the direct field effect, and programming methods of the MLC NAND flash memory. Also we design and verify the proposed equalizer using Matlab. As the simulation result, the error correction ratio of the equalizer shows about 20% under 20nm NAND process where the memory channel model has serious CCI.