Peking University Assigned Patent

Peking University, Beijing, China, has been assigned a patent (8,942,036) developed by Cai, Yimao, Huang, Ru, Qin, Shiqiang, Tang, Poren, Tang, Yu, Tan, Shenghu, Huang, Xin, and Pan, Yue, Beijing, China, for a “method for achieving four-bit storage using flash memory having splitting trench gate.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present invention discloses a method for achieving four-bit storage by using a flash memory having a splitting trench gate. The flash memory with the splitting trench gate is disclosed in a Chinese patent No. 200710105964.2. At one side that each of two trenches is contacted with a channel, a programming for electrons is achieved by using a channel hot electron injection method, and at the other side that each of the two trenches is contacted with a source or a drain, a programming for electrons is achieved by using an FN injection method, so that a function of a four-bit storage of the device is achieved by changing a programming mode. Thus, a performance of the device is improved while a storage density is greatly increased.“

The patent application was filed on October 14, 2011 (13/499,596).