Selective application of word line bias to minimize fringe effects in electromagnetic fields during erase of nonvolatile memory

Abstract

A memory device comprising an optimization component that facilitates erasing memory cells in a substantially homogeneous electromagnetic field and methods that facilitate erasing memory cells in a substantially homogeneous electromagnetic field are presented. The optimization component facilitates selecting a subset of memory cells to be erased at the same time, such that a memory cell in the subset of memory cells has two neighbor memory cells adjacent thereto that are in the subset of memory, or one neighbor memory cell adjacent thereto when the memory cell is an end-row memory cell. The optimization component facilitates performing a Fowler-Nordheim channel erase to erase the subset of memory cells, and a predetermined voltage potential associated with an erase command is applied to each cell of the subset of memory cells to facilitate reducing fringing effect associated with the electromagnetic fields applied to the cells during the erase.