Patent · US Expired

Integrated semiconductor memory with an arrangement of nonvolatile memory cells, and method

US7277312B2 · kind B2 · utility

1Cited by
7References
25Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateJan 27, 2006
Grant dateOct 2, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 1, 2026

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C2213/77
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In integrated semiconductor memories whose stored information is represented by the magnitude of the ohmic resistance of layer stacks with a respective layer comprising a solid electrolyte, the problem arises that although the fact that the large threshold values (G1, G2) for the writing voltage and the erasure voltage differ from memory cell to memory cell means that the memory cells can be programmed individually, said memory cells cannot conventionally be erased individually, i.e., selectively in relation to the other memory cells. The reason for this is the large bandwidth of the threshold values (G1) for the erasure voltages, which ranges from a potential (Verasemin) to a potential (Verasemax). The invention proposes a semiconductor memory and a method for operating the latter, in which simultaneous biasing of all the bit lines and word lines and a specific choice of the electrical potentials allow a single memory cell to be erased selectively in relation to the other memory cells.

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