Charge pump for use in non-volatile flash memory devices

US10847227B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Hieu Van Tran · San Jose, US
• Anh Ly · San Jose, US
• Thuan Vu · San Jose, US
• Kha Nguyen · Mission Viejo, US
• Hien Pham · Ngọc Lặc, VN
• Stanley Hong · Palo Alto, US
• Stephen Trinh · San Jose, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 13, 2018
• Grant date: Nov 24, 2020
• Expiry date: Dec 13, 2038

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H02M3/076
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Numerous embodiments of an improved charge pump design are disclosed for generating the high voltages necessary to perform erase and program operations in non-volatile flash memory devices. In these embodiments, each boost stage in the charge pump is modified to overcome a deficiency in prior art charge pumps whereby voltage actually would decrease in the final boost stage. These modifications include the addition of one or more of a clock doubling circuit, a local self-precharge circuit, a feed-forward precharge circuit, a feed-backward precharge circuit, and a hybrid circuit comprising NMOS and PMOS transistors and diodes.