Low voltage eeprom

Abstract

A non-volatile memory system which includes an array of memory cells with each of the cells including a source, drain and intermediate channel and which is suitable for low voltage operation such as battery powered applications. A floating gate is positioned over the channel and a control gate is positioned over the floating gate. The array is formed in a P type well, with the P well being formed in an N type well. The N well is formed in a P type substrate. The system includes circuitry for applying appropriate voltages for programming selected cells, reading selected cells and erasing the cells. The substrate is biased to circuit ground and, in read operations, the N well/P well PN junction is reversed biased. A positive voltage, typically a low level battery-supplied voltage, is applied to the control gate of the selected cell to be read and the source of the selected cell is biased to a negative voltage. The negative voltage applied to the source increases the effective cell gate-source and the drain-source voltages in the read operation so as to compensate for the low level voltage applied to the control gate. The reversed biased PN junction isolates the negative voltage applied to the N type source from the grounded P type substrate.