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:
Apr. 21, 1998
Filed:
Jun. 20, 1996
Ichiro Kondo, Tokyo, JP;
Nobuyuki Tanaka, Tokyo, JP;
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In order to shorten initialization time, a flash type non-volatile semiconductor memory of the invention comprises a line decoder (2) for selecting all of word lines (WL1 to WLm), a word line voltage generator (3) for generating various voltage, a column decoder (4) for selecting or not selecting all of digit lines (DL1 to DLn). Erase pulse impression process is performed by supplying a positive first word line voltage to all the word lines (WL1 to WLm) selected, and an erase voltage (Vs) to a source line, leaving all the digit line floating. All of memory-cell-transistors (MC11 to MCmn) are erased by infusing hot carriers in their floating gates by way of avalanche breakdown caused between their sources and substrates. Depression discrimination is performed with a sense amplifier (8) by selecting all digit lines (DL1 to DLn) and supplying all word lines (WL1 to WLm) with a second word line voltage.