Methods, circuits and systems for reading non-volatile memory cells
AssigneeSpansion Israel Ltd
InventorsIlan Bloom, Eduardo Maayan
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Abstract
The present invention includes methods, circuits and systems for reading non-volatile memory (“NVM”) cells, including multi-level NVM cells. According to some embodiments of the present invention, there may be provided a NVM cell threshold voltage detection circuit adapted to detect an approximate threshold voltage associated with a charge storage region of a NVM cell, where the NVM cell may be a single or a multi-charge storage region cell. A decoder circuit may be adapted to decode and/or indicate the logical state of a NVM cell charge storage region by mapping or converting a detected approximate threshold voltage of the charge storage region into a logical state value.
Claims10
A non-volatile memory (“NVM”) cell charge storage region reading circuit comprising:
- a threshold voltage detection circuit to determine an approximate threshold voltage of a first NVM cell charge storage region to be decoded;
- and
- a multifactor function of a decoder circuit to determine, when said approximate threshold voltage is within an overlapping logical state threshold voltage distribution, the logical state of said first charge storage region from the threshold voltage of a second charge storage region adjacent to said first charge storage region.
A non-volatile memory (“NVM”) cell charge storage region reading circuit comprising:
- a threshold voltage detection circuit to determine an approximate threshold voltage of a first NVM cell charge storage region to be decoded;
- and
- a multifactor function of a decoder circuit to use, when said approximate threshold voltage is within an overlapping logical state threshold voltage distribution, an approximate threshold voltage of an adjacent charge storage region as a differentiator to determine the logical state of said first storage region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.