Apparatus and method for inhibiting excess leakage current in unselected nonvolatile memory cells in an array
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1. A nonvolatile memory device comprising:
- an array of nonvolatile memory cells arranged in rows and columns, such that the nonvolatile memory cells located on each column are connected in groups such that the drains of each of the nonvolatile memory cells are connected to communicate with a local bit line associated with each column, the nonvolatile memory cells on each row have their gates commonly connected to a word line, and the nonvolatile memory cells one two adjacent rows have their sources commonly connected to a source line, wherein the array of nonvolatile memory cells is partitioned into sectors, where each sector is placed in an isolation well of a first impurity type and each sector of the array of the nonvolatile memory cells is divided into blocks and each block is divided into pages, and each page includes one row of the nonvolatile memory cells within each sector of each block connected to a word line;
a plurality of peripheral circuits connected to the word lines, bit lines, and sources lines to provide biasing voltages for reading, programming, erasing, and verifying selected nonvolatile memory cells, such that the biasing voltages do not exceed a drain to source breakdown voltage of the peripheral circuits and have word line of unselected cells set to a word line read inhibit voltage level during a read operation and to a program inhibit voltage level during a program operation and source lines of unselected cells are set to a source line inhibit voltage level to minimize a sub-threshold leakage current through each of the unselected nonvolatile memory cells.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for operating an array of NOR connected flash nonvolatile memory cells erases the array in increments of a page, block, sector, or the entire array while minimizing sub-threshold leakage current through unselected nonvolatile memory cells. The apparatus has a row decoder circuit and a source decoder circuit for selecting the nonvolatile memory cells for providing biasing conditions for reading, programming, verifying, and erasing the selected nonvolatile memory cells while minimizing sub-threshold leakage current through unselected nonvolatile memory cells.
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89 Claims
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1. A nonvolatile memory device comprising:
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an array of nonvolatile memory cells arranged in rows and columns, such that the nonvolatile memory cells located on each column are connected in groups such that the drains of each of the nonvolatile memory cells are connected to communicate with a local bit line associated with each column, the nonvolatile memory cells on each row have their gates commonly connected to a word line, and the nonvolatile memory cells one two adjacent rows have their sources commonly connected to a source line, wherein the array of nonvolatile memory cells is partitioned into sectors, where each sector is placed in an isolation well of a first impurity type and each sector of the array of the nonvolatile memory cells is divided into blocks and each block is divided into pages, and each page includes one row of the nonvolatile memory cells within each sector of each block connected to a word line; a plurality of peripheral circuits connected to the word lines, bit lines, and sources lines to provide biasing voltages for reading, programming, erasing, and verifying selected nonvolatile memory cells, such that the biasing voltages do not exceed a drain to source breakdown voltage of the peripheral circuits and have word line of unselected cells set to a word line read inhibit voltage level during a read operation and to a program inhibit voltage level during a program operation and source lines of unselected cells are set to a source line inhibit voltage level to minimize a sub-threshold leakage current through each of the unselected nonvolatile memory cells. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32)
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33. A method for operating an array of nonvolatile memory cells comprise the steps of:
slow reading a selected page of the array of nonvolatile memory cells by the steps of; applying a first word line read biasing voltage to the word line of the selected nonvolatile memory cells for a single level cell program, applying a second word line read biasing voltage level to the word line of the selected nonvolatile memory cells for a multiple level cell program, applying a first word line read inhibit voltage level to the word lines of the unselected nonvolatile memory cells for a single level cell program to minimize sub-threshold leakage currents in the unselected nonvolatile memory cells having the single level cell program, applying a second word line read inhibit voltage level to the word lines of the unselected nonvolatile memory cells for a multiple level cell program to minimize sub-threshold leakage currents in the unselected nonvolatile memory cells having the multiple level cell program, applying a first bit line read biasing voltage to bit lines of the array of the selected nonvolatile memory cells, applying a source line read biasing voltage to the selected source lines of the array of the selected nonvolatile memory cells, and applying a source line read inhibit voltage to the unselected source lines of the unselected nonvolatile memory cells to shift the threshold biasing voltages of the unselected nonvolatile memory cells to minimize the sub-threshold leakage current in the unselected nonvolatile memory cells. - View Dependent Claims (17, 30, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84)
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85. A method for operating of a charge retaining charge retaining nonvolatile memory device comprising;
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inhibiting sub-threshold leakage current in unselected charge retaining nonvolatile memory devices during a read operation by the steps of; applying a bit line read biasing voltage to the selected bit lines voltage; applying a source line inhibit voltage approximately equal to the read biasing voltage to the unselected source lines connected to charge retaining nonvolatile memory cells connected to the selected bit lines; and applying a word line read inhibit voltage to the unselected word lines. inhibiting sub-threshold leakage current in unselected charge retaining nonvolatile memory cells connected to selected bit lines during a program operation by the steps of; applying a negative word program inhibit voltage to the word line of the unselected charge retaining nonvolatile memory cell. inhibiting leakage current in unselected charge retaining nonvolatile memory cells connected to unselected bit lines by steps of; applying a word line program inhibit voltage to the unselected word lines. applying a source line program inhibit voltage to the source lines of the unselected charge retaining nonvolatile memory cells connected to the unselected bit lines. - View Dependent Claims (86, 87, 88, 89)
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Specification