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:
Jan. 09, 2001
Filed:
Aug. 09, 1999
Sameer S. Haddad, San Jose, CA (US);
Janet S. Wang, San Francisco, CA (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A method to tighten the threshold voltage distribution curve in a memory device composed of multiple memory cells organized in rows and columns by soft programming each memory cell. Soft programming voltages that utilize the hot-carrier mechanism are selected and are applied sequentially to memory cells in wordlines. The soft programming voltages include a ramped voltage V,of <3 volts, a V,of <5 volts and a V,of <0 volts. The soft programming voltages are applied for a time period of <10 microseconds. The V,distribution is reduced to a maximum width of <2 volts. The soft programming is applied to the memory cells after the memory cells have been verified as having been erased and a having been overerase corrected.