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. 18, 2003
Filed:
May. 25, 2001
John H. Pasternak, Santa Clara, CA (US);
SanDisk Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A technique for controlling the soft-program current in virtual-ground FLASH memory arrays is described. It is based on biasing the array bit-lines such that all current supplied to the array is used entirely towards the soft-programming of selected cells. The result is control of the soft-programming current and the programming rate of individual cell pairs. The benefit of soft-programming is then realized during the actual cell programming with the improved control of current and program rate. This is described with respect to an embodiment that uses source-side injection as the means for programming memory cells and with respect to a second embodiment based on a cell with dual floating gates.