STM32H743 Internal Flash (single sector) going bad

[PSari.1]

Hi,

I had a question with respect to the internal flash of the stm32 chip that we are using. After much investigation, it seems that the erase operation (via the HAL_FLASHEx_Erase_IT() function in software or using the ST-link utility directly) is "slower" for just sector #5 starting at 0x080A0000.

It noticeably takes longer (6-10 seconds) for this sector than the others (and well outside the bounds of the sector erase time documented in the data sheet). If we wait, the operation is successful (verified for both methods of erase mentioned above). I was wondering if this is an inclination that the internal flash is beginning to fail due to us exceeding the lifetime cycles (10,000) for erase or some other form of hardware failure?

I have never actually experienced an internal flash failure so I wasn't sure. Any other diagnostic suggestions are also welcome!

Thank you!

[PSari.1]

Correct -- I am able to erase fine but the issue still persists.

[Tesla DeLorean]

I don't think ST provides any means to remediate the wear on the device once it passes its usable lifespan.

You should probably replace the device and perhaps log usage cycles.

If you're a customer of merit, you could perhaps get ST to do failure analysis on the device.

There could be a latent defect in the flash area causing that portion to degrade more quickly than others.

The software in the device or that programming it, could have gone into a state where the memory was cycled excessively.

Generally people use longitudinal checksums, crc or hashes to validate their executable image