SanDisk Assigned Three Patents on Non-Volatile Storage

Programming and Selectively Erasing

SanDisk Technologies, Inc., Plano, TX, has been assigned a patent (8,199,586) developed by Jeffrey W. Lutze, San Jose, CA, and Yan Li, Milpitas, CA, for a "programming and selectively erasing non-volatile storage."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A non-volatile storage system performs programming for a plurality of non-volatile storage elements and selectively performs re-erasing of at least a subset of the non-volatile storage elements that were supposed to remain erased, without intentionally erasing programmed data."

The patent application was filed on June 24, 2011 (13/168,855).

Read Operation With Compensation for Coupling

SanDisk Technologies, Inc. Plano, TX, has been assigned a patent (8,199,571) developed by Nima Mokhlesi, Los Gatos, CA, for a "read operation for non-volatile storage with compensation for coupling."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Shifts in the apparent charge stored on a floating gate (or other charge storing element) of a non-volatile memory cell can occur because of the coupling of an electric field based on the charge stored in adjacent floating gates (or other adjacent charge storing elements). The problem occurs most pronouncedly between sets of adjacent memory cells that have been programmed at different times. To account for this coupling, the read process for a particular memory cell will provide compensation to an adjacent memory cell in order to reduce the coupling effect that the adjacent memory cell has on the particular memory cell."

The patent application was filed on Feb. 16, 2011 (13/028,674).

Reducing Program Disturb

SanDisk Technologies, Inc. Plano, TX, has been assigned a patent (8,189,378) developed by Gerrit Jan Hemink, Yokohama, Japan, and Shih-Chung Lee, Katsuradaiminami, Japan, for a "reducing program disturb in non-volatile storage."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A non-volatile semiconductor storage system is programmed in a manner that reduces program disturb by applying a higher boosting voltage on one or more word lines that are connected to non-volatile storage elements that may be partially programmed."

The patent application was filed on Sept. 27, 2006 (11/535,628).