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US 7,626,869 B2Granted
Multi-phase wordline erasing for flash memory
AssigneeSpansion LLC
InventorsXuguang Wang, Yi He, Zhizheng Liu, Sung-Yong Chung, Darlene G. Hamilton, Ashot Melik-Martirosian, Gulzar Kathawala, Ming Sang Kwan, Mark Randolph, Timothy Thurgate
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Erasing wordlines at the same time can cause undesirable results because some wordlines are affected by electromagnetic waves of other wordlines. However, other wordlines are not affected because they are next to contacts. Therefore, it can be beneficial to erase wordlines in a multi-phase sequence that allows for erasing wordlines without an impact from other wordlines.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a storage component that includes a plurality of wordlines that store information;
- a receiving component that receives a command to erase information stored in the storage component;
- and
- an erasing component that erases information stored on the plurality of wordlines in a sequence of at least two phases, wherein each phase of the sequence includes a subset of the plurality of wordlines, and wherein the sequence is based at least in part on location or spacing of the plurality of wordlines in the storage component, and the sequence is further based at least in part upon:
- a new sequence responding to the command, a predetermined sequence from a look-up table, or a sequence included as part of the command.
2 more elements
A method, comprising:
- receiving a command to erase information stored in wordlines of a flash memory device;
- obtaining a multi-stage sequence for erasing wordlines based on location and spacing of the wordlines within the flash memory device, wherein a stage includes one or more wordlines and the multi-stage sequence includes at least one of:
- a multi-stage sequence created in response to the command, a pre-set multi-stage sequence from a look-up table, or a multi-stage sequence that is based at least in part on an erase sequence included in the command;
- and
- implementing the multi-stage sequence for erasing wordlines.
2 more elements
A system, comprising:
- means for holding information in a plurality of bitlines and a plurality of wordlines;
- means for receiving a command to erase information held on the plurality of bitlines and the plurality of wordlines;
- and
- means for expunging information held on the plurality of wordlines and the plurality of bitlines through a multi-stage progression, the multi-stage progression is based at least in part on the distance between adjacent wordlines from the plurality of wordlines and is at least one of:
- created for the command, a pre-set sequence, progression information included in the command, or a hybrid comprising a pre-set sequence and progression information included in the command.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.