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US 8,045,374 B2Granted
Erase verification method of flash memory by selectively assigning deselected sectors
AssigneeElite Semiconductor Memory Technology Inc.
InventorChung-Zen Chen
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Abstract
A suitable erase verification (ERSV) method of a flash memory apparatus is provided, which is different from the conventional ERSV method. That is, by managing the ERSV operation on the flash memory after at least once of erase operation, a flash memory controller in the flash memory apparatus selectively assigns at least one of de-selected sectors instead of all of the de-selected sectors to perform the ERSV. Therefore, by managing the ERSV operation on the flash memory, the time for the ERSV operation thereon is reduced.
Claims8
An erase verification method of a flash memory apparatus, comprising:
- providing at least one flash memory having a plurality of sectors organized in different blocks;
- counting a number of erasing operation times on the selected sector or the selected sectors;
- selectively assigning at least one of the de-selected sectors instead of all of the de-selected sectors to perform the erase verification (ERSV) while the number of the erasing operation times is larger than a predetermined number;
- performing a program verification (PGMV) on the assigned de-selected sector to check for bit line leakage in the assigned de-selected sector while the assigned de-selected sector is not a program state;
- and
- performing a re-program on the assigned de-selected sector to fix the bit line leakage in the assigned de-selected sector while the assigned de-selected sector fails in PGMV.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.