Sony Corporation

Nec Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Nec Corporation

Junichi Suzuki

Takeshi Kubo

Norio Fukasawa

Tetsu Tanaka

Kohji Kanamori

Masahiro Saito

Kiyoshi Toyota

Hiroyuki Ito

Satoru Ishii

Satoshi Sakamoto

Hiroshi Kawamura

Takeharu Takasawa

Hidekazu Seto

Mitsunori Ueda

Kenji Shintani

Shoji Sato

Satoshi Hineno

Junichi Yamashita

Kimihiro Saito

Toru Takeda

Satoshi Nakano

Noriaki Kodama

Akio Toda

Keiji Maruta

Teiichirou Nishizaka

Ayumi Konishi

Yasuhide Den

Masami Hanyu

Shinji Fujieda

Kazutaka Noborimoto

Tsuguhiro Abe

Satoshi Kumai

Norihiro Kato

Souichi Murakami

Minoru Kubo

In each of n twin cells of n first sense amplifier, a current path is formed between a power supply line and one memory cell having a small or large cell current in a data readout state of two memory cells. A second sense amplifier generates erase verify information indicating whether all stored data in the memory cells of the n twin cells are in an erase state at the same level, based on a verify current flowing through a power supply line as a sum of currents of the n first sense amplifiers.

Non-volatile semiconductor storage device

A first voltage application circuit applies a first voltage determined to have a first voltage value to a first wiring connected to an asymmetrical memory cell. A second voltage application circuit applies a second voltage determined to have a second voltage value to a second wiring connected to the asymmetrical memory cell. When receiving a first input value from a first terminal, a voltage control circuit fixes the second voltage value and changes the first voltage value with a positive inclination with respect to the first input value within a range equal to or higher than the second voltage value. When receiving a second input value from a second terminal, the voltage control circuit fixes the first voltage value and changes the second voltage value with a negative inclination with respect to the second input value within a range equal to or lower than the first voltage value.

Semiconductor device

An occupied area of the switch circuit electrically connected to a memory cell is reduced to reduce the size of a semiconductor device. A semiconductor device according to an embodiment includes a memory cell on a semiconductor substrate and a semiconductor chip in which a switch circuit electrically connected to the memory cell is formed, wherein the switch circuit includes a second transistor electrically connected to the memory cell, and the second transistor includes a second word gate formed on the semiconductor substrate through a third gate insulating film, and a second coupling gate formed on the semiconductor substrate through a fourth gate insulating film having a thickness greater than that of the third gate insulating film, wherein a voltage higher than a voltage applied to the second word gate is applied to the second coupling gate of the second transistor when a current is applied to the memory cell.

Semiconductor device and method of controlling the same

A non-volatile semiconductor memory device includes a sense amplifier, first and second bit lines that are connected to the sense amplifier, a first memory cell column that is connected to the first bit line, the first memory cell column being formed by a plurality of MONOS type transistors, a first constant current source that is connected to the second bit line, the first constant current source generating a reference current for the first memory cell column, and a first switch that is provided between the first constant current source and the second bit line, the first switch being formed by a MONOS type transistor.

Non-volatile semiconductor memory device with a sense amplifier reference circuit having a MONOS transfer transistor

An optical pickup apparatus and an optical disc apparatus are adapted to raise the efficiency of utilization of the lasers of the apparatus for accurately detecting tracking errors by raising the intensity ratio of the beam of the 0-th order to the beams of the &#xb1;1st orders produced by splitting of the laser beam of the wavelength to be subjected to division by three. The optical pickup apparatus includes a light emitting section for emitting a first laser beam having wavelength &#x3bb;and a second laser beam having wavelength &#x3bb;different from the wavelength &#x3bb;

Optical pickup apparatus and optical disc apparatus

A nonvolatile semiconductor memory includes a memory cell array, a control circuit and an address control circuit. In the memory cell array, a plurality of memory cells are arranged in a matrix of rows and columns. The control circuit sets a write/erase mode in response to an erase instruction, and to count the erase instruction. The address control circuit generates a write address from an input address for a write operation based on a count value from the control circuit in the write/erase mode. A write order to the memory cells accessed based on a series of the write addresses in a current write operation is different from a write order to the memory cells accessed based on a series of write addresses in a previous write operation.

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory and driving method the same

An optical pickup device is provided which includes a double-wavelength objective lens () that collects a light beam selectively emitted from a light-emitting/-detecting element () that selectively emits a plurality of light beams different in wavelength from each other, and also return light from an optical disk (), a first diffraction grating () that splits the light beam emitted from a light-emitting/-detecting element () into three beams including a zero-order light beam and positive and negative first-order light beams, a second diffraction grating () that diffracts the return light for traveling along a light path separate from that of the outgoing light, and a third diffraction grating () that corrects a light-path deviation by diffracting the positive first-order light beam diffracted by the second diffraction grating (). The light-emitting/-detecting element () provides a focusing error signal FE by detecting the negative first-order light beam diffracted by the third diffraction element (), and a tracking error signal by detecting return portions of the positive and negative first-order light beams from the first diffraction grating ().

Optical pickup device, optical disk drive, optical device and composite optical element

Disclosed is an optical head in which position adjustment of a photodetector light receiving surface or component parts may be simplified, production costs may be reduced and operational reliability may be improved. The optical head includes a light source, radiating light of a preset wavelength, an objective lensfor condensing the outgoing light from the light sourceon an optical discand for condensing the return light from the optical disc, a beam splitterfor branching the optical path of the return light reflected by the optical disc, and for collimating the branched return light so as to be parallel to the outgoing light from the light source, a composite optical component including a splitting prismarranged on a site of incidence of the branched return light for spatially splitting the return light, and a light receiving unit for receiving plural return light beams spatially split by the splitting prismfor producing focusing error signals.

Optical head and recording and/or reproducing apparatus employing same

This invention is an optical pickup device having a composite optical element () which has a first diffraction grating () for splitting a light beam emitted from a light source () into zeroth-order light, plus-first-order light and minus-first-order light, a second diffraction grating () for diffracting the optical path of a return light beam from an optical disc (), and a split prism () arranged at a position where the minus-first-order light diffracted by the second diffraction grating () is incident and adapted for splitting the minus-first-order light into a plurality of light beams. It also has a light receiving unit () for acquiring a focusing error signal FE by receiving each return light beam split by the split prism () and for acquiring a tracking error signal by receiving return light beams from the optical disc () of the plus-first-order light and the minus-first-order light split by the first diffraction grating ().

Optical pickup device and optical disc device

An apparatus for testing a defect, includes a semiconductor element. In the semiconductor element, a conductive film is formed on an STI (shallow trench isolation) insulating film, which fills a shallow trench extending into a semiconductor region, opposing said semiconductor region through an insulating film in an ordinary state, and the shallow trench is not completely or sufficiently filled with the STI insulating film in a defective state. Also, the apparatus includes a control circuit configured to set a test mode in response to a test mode designation signal, a first voltage applying circuit configured to output a first voltage to the conductive film in the test mode, and a second voltage applying circuit configured to output a second voltage to the semiconductor region in the test mode. The first voltage is higher than the second voltage, and a voltage difference between the first voltage and the second voltage is sufficient to cause breakdown between the conductive film and the semiconductor region in the defective state.

Method and apparatus for testing defective portion of semiconductor device

A memory cell array includes a plurality of memory cells each of which has a control gate and a floating gate. A programming circuit operates in a first programming mode followed by a second programming mode. In the first programming mode, the programming circuit applies a first program pulse to first memory cells while progressively increasing a programming capability of the first program pulse until threshold voltages of the first memory cells become higher than or equal to a first reference voltage. In the second programming mode, the programming circuit applies a second program pulse to second memory cells included in the first memory cells and having threshold voltages lower than a second reference voltage that is higher than the first reference voltage until the threshold voltages of the second memory cells become higher than or equal to the second reference voltage.

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and method of programming in nonvolatile semiconductor memory device

A silicon layer doped with an impurity for a floating gate, a protective layer, a silicon nitride layer of a laminated hard mask and a first NSG layer are formed into a desired pattern, on which a second NSG layer is formed and left as a side wall. With the second NSG layer as a mask, the silicon nitride layer is etched. Using the remaining silicon nitride layer as a mask, the silicon layer is etched to form a silicon pattern whose surface is covered with a second protective layer, and the silicon nitride layer is etched out. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent a damage at the surface of the floating gate at the time of forming the floating gate using doped polysilicon.

Method of fabricating semiconductor memory device

A nonvolatile memory device includes source and drain regions formed in a semiconductor substrate, and an insulating film formed on a channel region between the source region and the drain region in the semiconductor substrate. The nonvolatile memory device also includes a dielectric film formed above the channel region to store electric charge, and a control gate formed on the dielectric film. Compressive stress in the channel region is equal to or less than 50 MPa.

Nonvolatile memory and nonvolatile memory manufacturing method

An optical pickup device is provided which includes a first diffraction grating () that splits a light beam emitted from a light-emitting/-detecting element () into a zero-order light beam and positive and negative first-order light beams, a second diffraction grating () that diffracts return light from an optical disk () for traveling along a light path separate from that of the outgoing light, and a third diffraction grating () that corrects the deviation of the light path by diffracting the positive first-order light beam diffracted by the second diffraction grating (). The light-emitting/-detecting element () provides a focusing error signal FE by detecting the negative first-order light beam, and a tracking error signal by detecting return portions of the positive and negative first-order light beams from the first diffraction grating ().

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Kanagawa, Japan

Junichi Suzuki