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US 2012/0268987 A1Published application
System and Method for Detecting Disturbed Memory Cells of a Semiconductor Memory Device
AssigneeMacronix International Co., Ltd.
InventorsChun-Hsiung Hung, Jeng-Kuan Lin, Kuen-Long Chang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of detecting a disturb condition of a memory cell includes application of multiple sets of conditions to the memory cell and determining whether the memory cell behaves as a programmed memory cell in response to the sets of conditions. A disturbed memory cell can be detected if the memory cell responds as a programmed memory cell in response to one of the sets of conditions, but responds as an erased memory cell in response to another of the sets of conditions.
Claims10
A detecting method of a memory device, the method comprising:
- applying a first word line voltage to a memory cell and a first reference word line voltage to a reference memory cell;
- and
- applying a second word line voltage to the memory cell and a second reference word line voltage to the reference memory cell, wherein if the first word line voltage is same with the second word line voltage, the first reference word line voltage is different from the second reference word line voltage, or if the first reference word line voltage is same with the second reference word line voltage, the first word line voltage is different from the second word line voltage.
A memory device, comprising:
- an array of memory cells and at least one reference memory cell;
- and
- circuitry to apply a first word line voltage to a memory cell in the array and a first reference word line voltage to the reference memory cell, and to apply a second word line voltage to the memory cell and a second reference word line voltage to the reference memory cell, wherein if the first word line voltage is same with the second word line voltage, the first reference word line voltage is different from the second reference word line voltage, or if the first reference word line voltage is same with the second reference word line voltage, the first word line voltage is different from the second word line voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.