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:
Sep. 30, 1999
Yuan Tang, San Jose, CA (US);
James C. Yu, San Jose, CA (US);
Jeffrey W. Anthony, San Jose, CA (US);
EON Silicon Devices, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A unified erase method used in an array of flash EEPROM memory cells arranged in a plurality of sectors for performing either a single-sector, multiple-sector, or all-sector erasing operation with a reduced amount of total erase time and a uniform V,distribution as good as that of a single-sector erase operation is provided. An erase-verify operation is performed sequentially on the plurality of sectors from a first sector to a last sector beginning with a first address of each sector if its corresponding erase-on signal is not turned OFF. The current address of each sector is stored at a point where the erase-verify operation failed. An erase pulse is applied only to all sectors simultaneously that have not passed the erase-verify operation. The erase-verify operation is then repeated beginning at the current address stored. The erasing operation is terminated when the erase-on signal has been turned OFF in all sectors in the plurality of sectors.