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:
Jul. 11, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 17, 1998
Anil Gupta, San Jose, CA (US);
Steve Schumann, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Atmel Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
In a flash memory array, an internal refresh periodically rewrites the information stored in each of the rows of memory cells in a flash memory. The flash memory array includes a refresh pointer bitline that indicates the row to be refreshed. In a first embodiment of the present invention, the internal refresh is performed automatically after every user erase/program cycle. In second and third embodiments, the user of the of the flash memory array selects when the internal refresh is performed, but the address of the row to be refreshed is supplied internally. In each of the three the embodiments, the internal refresh includes the four operations of SCAN, REFRESH ERASE, REFRESH PROGRAM, and INCREMENT.