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:
Nov. 02, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 24, 1997
Applicant:
Inventor:
Peter Wung Lee, Saratoga, CA (US);
Assignee:
Aplus Integrated Circuits, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
36518533 ; 36518524 ; 36518529 ;
Abstract
A flash memory device having a low threshold voltage distribution is disclosed. The threshold voltage in a program state of a flash memory cell is defined to be near or slightly greater than approximately 3.0 volts. The threshold voltage in an erased state is defined to be less than 0.7 volts or at ground level. The low threshold voltage distribution makes it possible to use a low voltage around 3.0 volts for the gate of the memory cell in a read operation. The UV erased threshold is raised to near the threshold voltage of a program state to avoid data retention problem.