Patent · US Expired

Single transistor flash electrically programmable memory cell in which a negative voltage is applied to the nonselected word line

US5396459A · kind A · utility

49Cited by
3References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 16, 1993
Grant dateMar 7, 1995
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 16, 2013

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C2216/28
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A nonvolatile semiconductor memory using a single floating gate transistor, wherein a control gate elecrrode is negatively biased while a source region is positively biased, and a writing operation is performed bit by bit by transferring electrons from the floating gate into the source region through Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. And an erasing operation is performed by injecting channel hot electrons from the drain region into the floating gate, or by injecting electrons from a substrate into the floating gate through Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. The source region is connected to an individual bit line, and the drain region to a common line so that over-erasing is averted.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.