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:
Dec. 21, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 10, 1998
Koucheng Wu, San Jose, CA (US);
Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
NexFlash Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A byte-programmable/byte-erasable flash memory system having on-chip counters and secondary storage for word line and bit line disturbance control during program and erase operations. The counters count the numbers of program/erase cycles and compare them with empirically pre-determined counter limits; when the program/erase count exceeds the counter limit, the data then carried in the system are temporarily transferred onto the secondary storage while the memory array is refreshed and the counters are reset. The lifetime of the resulting flash memory system is improved because of decreased erase and program stresses in the memory array.