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:
Sep. 16, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 27, 2002
Junichi Ogane, Tokyo, JP;
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A word-line driving circuit drives the word lines of a non-volatile semiconductor memory to different potentials to read, write, and erase data in memory cells coupled to the word lines. A ground potential is supplied to non-driven word lines through respective switching elements. The data in the memory cells coupled to some or all of the word lines can be erased simultaneously by driving those word lines to an erasing potential. When this is done, a mitigating potential intermediate between the ground potential and the erasing potential is supplied to the switching elements of the driven word lines, thereby reducing current leakage through these switching elements, which are switched off.