Spansion Llc.

Kian-Huat Hoo

Mee-Choo Ong

Sheau-Yang Ch'ng

Joon-Siong Pang

Woon-Sang Pui

A method, system and apparatus for determining whether any un-programmed cell is affected by charge disturb by comparing the voltage threshold of the un-programmed cells against a reference voltage. If the voltage threshold for the un-programmed cell exceeds the reference voltage, the failed or defective un-programmed cell will be then be programmed. This will change the defective un-programmed cell to a new programmed value. To account for the location of the failing memory cell, address syndrome bits are used to identify the location of the defective memory cell.

Charge retention for flash memory by manipulating the program data methodology

Systems and methods that facilitate characterization of a flash memory device are presented. A characterization component can be associated with a regulator component included in a memory device to facilitate setting and measuring respective drain voltage levels for programming, erase, and soft programming operations at address bit combinations available for the respective operations. The characterization component can utilize external address bits that can be fixed when performing the operations to minimize disruption to the drain voltage measurement flow. The characterization component can detect when a particular operation has already been performed based in part on an applicable portion of the address bit combination associated with such operation, and can bypass such operation at that address bit combination to proceed to the next operation that has yet to be performed thereby efficiently setting and measuring drain voltage levels for various operations and trim settings to characterize the memory device.

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Penang, Malaysia

Kian-Huat Hoo