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:
Sep. 03, 1996
Filed:
Aug. 31, 1995
Stephen N Keeney, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Gregory E Atwood, San Jose, CA (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for programming non-volatile memory enables fast low current programming. Low current programming is achieved by applying a source bias voltage and increasing the drain voltage to be greater than the source bias voltage to maintain fast programming. Furthermore, the control gate voltage may be stepped or ramped from a minimum value to a maximum value to further reduce the peak channel current and to allow the flash cell threshold voltage to be placed to an exact value, for MLC applications. Ramping or stepping of the control gate may be done independently or in conjunction with an applied source bias voltage. Furthermore, the reduced cell current allows more cells to be programmed in parallel which improves program performance and the drain select device can be reduced in size to reduce die area.