Substrate bias for programming non-volatile memory

Abstract

A method and system for substrate bias for programming non-volatile memory. A bias voltage is applied to a deep well structure under a well comprising a channel region for a non-volatile memory cell. During programming, a negative bias applied to the deep well beneficially creates a non-uniform distribution of electrons within the channel region, with an abundance of electrons at the surface of the channel region. The application of additional bias voltages to a control gate and a drain may cause electrons to migrate from the channel region to a storage layer of the non-volatile memory cell. Advantageously, due to the increased supply of electrons at the surface of the channel region, programming of the non-volatile cell takes place faster than under the conventional art.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.