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:
Feb. 15, 2000
Filed:
Nov. 20, 1998
Yasuhiro Tonda, Kanagawa, JP;
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A non-volatile semiconductor memory includes a reference voltage generating circuit including a series circuit formed of a resistor and a diode, and a constant current circuit for supplying a constant current having a temperature dependency different from that of the diode, to the series circuit, so as to generate at one end of the series circuit a reference voltage having a temperature dependency equivalent to that of the threshold voltage of an erased memory cell. An erase verify voltage generating circuit generates on the basis of the reference voltage an erase verify voltage having a temperature dependency equivalent to that of the threshold voltage of the erased memory cell, and a read voltage generating circuit generates on the basis of the reference voltage a read voltage having a temperature dependency equivalent to that of the threshold voltage of the erased memory cell. Thus, a margin enough to realize a high speed reading can be ensured between the read voltage and the erase verify voltage, regardless of a temperature variation.