Error Characterization, Mitigation, and Recovery in Flash Memory Based Solid-State Drives

Understand

NAND flash memory is ubiquitous in everyday life today because its capacity has continuously increased and cost has continuously decreased over decades.

• This positive growth is a result of two key trends: (1) effective process technology scaling, and (2) multi-level (e.g., MLC, TLC) cell data coding.
• Unfortunately, the reliability of raw data stored in flash memory has also continued to become more difficult to ensure, because these two trends lead to (1) fewer electrons in the flash memory cell (floating gate) to represent the data and (2) larger cell-to-cell interference and disturbance effects.
• Without mitigation, worsening reliability can reduce the lifetime of NAND flash memory.