Regulation of Source Potential to Combat Cell Source IR Drop
First Claim
1. In a non-volatile memory device having individual pages of memory cells to be sensed in parallel, each memory cell having a source, a drain, a charge storage unit and a control gate for controlling a conduction current along said drain and source, the memory device comprising:
- a page source line connectable to the source of each memory cell in a page;
an aggregate node coupled to individual page source lines of a structural block;
a source isolation switch coupled via said aggregate node to a page source line of a selected page for a memory operation; and
a source potential regulation circuit, including an active circuit element having a first input connected to a first reference voltage and having a second input connected as a feedback loop that is connectable to the aggregate node.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques are presented for dealing with possible source line bias is an error introduced by a non-zero resistance in the ground loop of the read/write circuits of a non-volatile memory. The error is caused by a voltage drop across the resistance of the source path to the chip'"'"'s ground when current flows. For this purpose, the memory device includes a source potential regulation circuit, including an active circuit element having a first input connected to a reference voltage and having a second input connected as a feedback loop that is connectable to the aggregate node from which the memory cells of a structural block have their current run to ground. A variation includes a non-linear resistive element connectable between the aggregate node and ground.
75 Citations
24 Claims
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1. In a non-volatile memory device having individual pages of memory cells to be sensed in parallel, each memory cell having a source, a drain, a charge storage unit and a control gate for controlling a conduction current along said drain and source, the memory device comprising:
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a page source line connectable to the source of each memory cell in a page; an aggregate node coupled to individual page source lines of a structural block; a source isolation switch coupled via said aggregate node to a page source line of a selected page for a memory operation; and a source potential regulation circuit, including an active circuit element having a first input connected to a first reference voltage and having a second input connected as a feedback loop that is connectable to the aggregate node. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. In a non-volatile memory device having individual pages of memory cells to be sensed in parallel, each memory cell having a source, a drain, a charge storage unit and a control gate for controlling a conduction current along said drain and source, a method of sensing a page of memory cells, comprising:
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providing a page source line; coupling the source of each memory cell of said page to said page line source line; coupling the page source line to a structural block aggregate node for connection to a source voltage control circuit for sensing operation; coupling the aggregate node to a feedback loop of a source potential regulation circuit including an active circuit element having a first input and having a second input connected to the feedback loop; and applying a first reference voltage to said first input. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. In a non-volatile memory device having individual pages of memory cells to be sensed in parallel, each memory cell having a source, a drain, a charge storage unit and a control gate for controlling a conduction current along said drain and source, the memory device comprising:
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a page source line connectable to the source of each memory cell in a page; an aggregate node coupled to individual page source lines of a structural block; a source isolation switch coupled via said aggregate node to a page source line of a selected page for a memory operation; and a non-linear resistive element connectable between the aggregate node and ground reference. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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22. In a non-volatile memory device having individual pages of memory cells to be sensed in parallel, each memory cell having a source, a drain, a charge storage unit and a control gate for controlling a conduction current along said drain and source, a method of sensing a page of memory cells, comprising:
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providing a page source line; coupling the source of each memory cell of said page to said page line source line; coupling the page source line to a structural block aggregate node for connection to a source voltage control circuit for sensing operation; and coupling the aggregate node to ground reference by a non-linear resistive element connectable. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24)
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Specification