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:
May. 05, 1998
Filed:
Apr. 10, 1997
Applicant:
Inventors:
Mark E Bauer, Cameron Park, CA (US);
Sanjay Talreja, Folsom, CA (US);
Kevin W Frary, Fair Oaks, CA (US);
Gregory Atwood, San Jose, CA (US);
Albert Fazio, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Johnny Javanifard, Sacramento, CA (US);
Assignee:
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
365210 ; 365184 ; 36518509 ; 36518907 ; 36523006 ;
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for determining the state of a memory cell having more than two possible states are disclosed. For a first embodiment, the state of a flash cell having n states, where n is a power of 2, is determined by selectively comparing the threshold voltage V.sub.t of a selected memory cell to (n-1) reference voltages. For every two states, a single comparator is provided such that the total number of comparators is equal to the number of bits stored in the memory cell.