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.

Date of Patent:
Oct. 14, 2014

Filed:

May. 16, 2014
Applicant:

Sandisk Technologies Inc., Plano, TX (US);

Inventors:

Xiying Costa, San Jose, CA (US);

Seung Yu, San Ramon, CA (US);

Roy E Scheuerlein, Cupertino, CA (US);

Haibo Li, Sunnyvale, CA (US);

Man L Mui, Santa Clara, CA (US);

Assignee:

SanDisk Technologies Inc., Plano, TX (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 16/00 (2006.01); G11C 16/16 (2006.01); G11C 16/24 (2006.01); G11C 16/14 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 16/16 (2013.01); G11C 16/24 (2013.01); G11C 16/14 (2013.01);
Abstract

An erase operation for a 3D stacked memory device adjusts a start time of an erase period and/or a duration of the erase period for each storage element based on a position of the storage element. A voltage is applied to one or both drive ends of a NAND string to pre-charge a channel to a level which is sufficient to create gate-induced drain leakage at the select gate transistors. With timing based on a storage element's distance from the driven end, the control gate voltage is lowered to encourage tunneling of holes into a charge trapping layer in the erase period. The lowered control gate voltage results in a channel-to-control gate voltage which is sufficiently high to encourage tunneling. The duration of the erase period is also increased when the distance from the driven end is greater. As a result, a narrow erase distribution can be achieved.


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