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. 06, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 26, 1998
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
AMIC Technology, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/604 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/604 ;
Abstract
A novel erase mechanism using junction hot hole injection is disclosed for flash memory cell sector and bulk erase operations. A constant current supply is used so that a suitable junction voltage breakdown can be provided despite expected variations in cell structures, operations, etc. The inventive method eliminates the need for dual polarity voltage supplies for erase operations, and provides a method to achieve a tight distribution of erased cell threshold voltages. In addition, over-erasure problems associated with Fowler-Nordheim tunneling are essentially eliminated.