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:
Jun. 21, 1994
Filed:
Jun. 10, 1992
Nagesh Challa, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Nexcom Technology, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of controllably programming an electrically erasable programmable read only memory comprises the step of erasing a group of memory cells of the memory into a high threshold state. The group including data cells and monitor cells. The data cells of the group are programmed in accordance with data presented to the memory, and the monitor cells of the group are programmed to a low threshold state. The threshold voltage of the monitor cells is sampled, and the monitor cell programming step and the sampling step are repeated until an excessively low threshold voltage is sampled. If the sampling is done with a sampling voltage higher than the read voltage, the cell threshold voltage generally is not excessive. In any event, an excessively low threshold is raised by a controlled erasure.