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AssigneeInformation Storage Devices, Inc.
InventorsLawrence D. Engh, Albert V. Kordesch, Ping Guo, Chun-Mai Liu
Estimating the term…
Adaptive programming method and apparatus for flash memory analog storage. The present invention method is to adjust the voltage of the programming pulse each time based on the result of the previous pulse. The expected change in the programmed value is compared to the measured change, and the difference used to improve the model of that cell after each programming pulse. The algorithm is “adaptive” because the voltage of each pulse is adapted to whatever the cell needs. If the cell is programming too slowly, the voltage is increased dramatically to make it faster. Conversely if the results show that a particular cell is programming too fast, the next voltage pulse is increased by only a small amount (or even decreased if necessary). Because the response of the cell is non-linear, a special analog circuit is used to calculate the optimum voltage for each pulse. As one alternative, a digital calculation may also be used to program the cells. Because of the programming speed of the exemplary method, a voice signal may be sampled and stored in flash memory one cell at a time. Variable programming parameters other than voltage may be used if desired.
A method of programming an analog storage memory cell to provide a cell read voltage in accordance with an analog voltage to be stored in the cell comprising:
A method of storing an audio signal in a plurality of flash memory cells to allow reconstructing the audio signal by reading the analog voltages in each cell and successively concatenating the voltages read from the cells comprising:
A method of programming an analog storage memory cell to provide a cell read voltage in accordance with an analog voltage to be stored in the cell comprising:
A method of storing an audio signal in a plurality of flash memory cells to allow reconstructing the audio signal by reading the analog voltages in each cell and successively concatenating the voltages read from the cells comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.