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:
Dec. 16, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 22, 2002
Ken Cheong Cheah, Penang, MY;
Edward V. Bautista, Jr., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Weng Fook Lee, Penang, MY;
Boon Tang Teh, Penang, MY;
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
In a method and system for monitoring erase pulses applied on a sector of flash memory cells fabricated on a semiconductor substrate, a pulse counter and a pulse counter controller are fabricated on the semiconductor substrate. The pulse counter controller inputs a maximum number and outputs an indication of a sector fail if the flash memory cells of the sector do not pass erase verification with less than the maximum number of erase pulses applied on the sector during an erase verify BIST (Built-in-Self-Test) mode. In one example, the maximum number is a percentage of a diagonal total number of erase pulses needed to be applied on the sector until each flash memory cell at a diagonal location of the sector passes erase verification.