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:
Jul. 22, 2008
Filed:
Feb. 16, 2006
Cheng-jye Liu, Taoyuan County, TW;
Chen-chin Liu, Hsinchu, TW;
Lan-ting Huang, Hsinchu, TW;
Macronix International Co., Ltd., Hsinchu, TW;
Abstract
A sector erase method for use in a non-volatile memory, such as a FLASH memory, including a plurality of memory cells in rows and columns, the memory cells being divided into a plurality of sectors. The sector erase method includes erasing the memory cells of a first sector by applying successive erase pulses that increase in voltage magnitude or pulse width, until erasure of the first sector is verified. Erase condition information corresponding to the first sector, is recorded, this information including a number of times successive erase pulses are needed to be applied in order to erase the memory cells of the first sector. Memory cells of a next sector are erased by applying a first erase pulse having a voltage magnitude or pulse width determined from the recorded erase condition information. The first erase pulse may be incremented if the first erase pulse fails to erase that next sector.