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:
Oct. 11, 1994
Filed:
Feb. 05, 1993
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, S.A., Gentilly Cedex, FR;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
365201 ; 36518907 ; 36518909 ; 365210 ;
Abstract
An electrically-programmable integrated circuit memory in which the selected memory cell is read by comparing its current output with that of a reference cell, plus a bias current. The bias current is different in test mode than it would be during a normal read operation. The result of this is that, in test mode, cells whose current output is marginal in the unprogrammed state will be detected as faulty, even though those same cells would correctly be read as unprogrammed.