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:
May. 22, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 24, 1998
Applicant:
Inventor:
James D. Sansbury, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Assignee:
Altera Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/604 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/604 ;
Abstract
A nonvolatile memory cell (,) has multiple oxide thicknesses, a tunnel oxide portion (,) and thicker gate oxide portion (,). The memory cell (,) may be used to form compact arrays of memory cells to store logical data. During programming of a selected memory cell, unselected memory cells are not disturbed, and oxide stress for the unselected memory cells is minimized. Techniques for operating programming, erasing, and characterizing the memory cell with multiple oxide thicknesses are discussed.