5.1 Bad Block Management

Bad blocks are a normal and expected characteristic of a NAND Flash device. Unlike NOR Flash devices, NAND Flash devices may contain bad blocks from the factory (known as “initial bad blocks”) and can develop additional bad blocks over time due to wear and program/erase cycling. Bad Block Management (BBM) is therefore essential to maintain data reliability and prevent system failures. BBM techniques involve identifying, tracking and avoiding the use of these blocks, typically through bad block markers and software-level remapping strategies.

Use a Bad Block Table (BBT) to track unusable bad blocks.