The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 31, 1992
Filed:
Oct. 26, 1990
Nader A Radjy, San Francisco, CA (US);
Michael S Briner, San Jose, CA (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A non-volatile memory apparatus having a plurality of memory cells, each memory cell including a floating gate tunnel device (130) having a drain (134) and a floating gate read transistor (140) having a source (142) and a drain (144), the tunnel device and read transistor in each respective cell having a common floating gate (138, 148) and a common control gate (136, 146). The apparatus includes writing circuitry (102, 160) for writing desired charge levels to the floating gate of a cell to be written during a writing operation, sense circuitry (140, 150) for sensing the charge levels on the floating gate of a cell to be read during a sense operation, and circuitry for applying during the sense operation a predetermined reference voltage to the source of the read transistor in the cell to be read, and a predetermined sense mode drain voltage different from the reference voltage to the drain of the tunnel device in the cell to be read, independently of the voltage at the drain of the read transistor in the cell to be read.