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:
Mar. 27, 2001
Filed:
Nov. 15, 1999
Applicant:
Inventors:
Robert H. Tu, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Sunil D. Mehta, San Jose, CA (US);
Assignee:
Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/604 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/604 ;
Abstract
An improved process of programming and erasing an EEPROM memory cell in an array of identical cells uses a reduced voltage on the write transistor of the cell to be programmed or erased and at the same time applies smaller voltages across the relatively thin oxides of the write transistors of the other cells in the array so as to reduce oxide leakage and damage in those cells but without disturbing the information stored in those cells. The result is the ability to scale down the size of the EEPROM memory cell allowing enhanced economies and permitting faster program, erase and reading speeds.