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. 30, 2000
Filed:
Apr. 21, 1998
Douglas J Lee, San Jose, CA (US);
Sanjay Mehrotra, Milpitas, CA (US);
Mehrdad Mofidi, Fremont, CA (US);
Daniel C Guterman, Fremont, CA (US);
SanDisk Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
An EEPROM device having a plurality of flash EEPROM cells organized in right and left half memory planes each having right and left quad memory blocks is described along with corresponding control circuitry including erase circuitry for concurrently erasing selected addressable data sectors of the EEPROM device. Included in the erase circuitry are a plurality of erase voltage generating circuits, a corresponding plurality of switching circuitry, and switch control circuitry shared by the plurality of switching circuitry for controlling the selectable coupling of erase voltages generated by the erase voltage generating circuits to corresponding data sectors of the EEPROM device. To minimize the die size of an integrated circuit including such an EEPROM device, the switching circuitry is formed adjacent elongated gap regions containing contacts for connecting buried diffusion regions of the plurality of flash EEPROM cells to parallel running metal lines to reduce the effective resistance of the bit lines comprising the buried diffusion regions.