Gigadevice Semiconductor Assigned Patent

Gigadevice Semiconductor (Beijing), Inc., Beijing, China, has been assigned a patent (9,490,026) developed by Hu, Hong, and Wang, Linkai, Beijing, China, for a “nonvolatile memory erasure method and device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Disclosed are non-volatile memory erasure method and device for solving the problem of unnecessary time expenditure and complex process of the current erasure operation. The method comprises: after receiving an erasure instruction, performing a pre-reading verification on the target erasure area corresponding to the erasure instruction, if the pre-reading verification passes, then performing an erasure operation on the target erasure area, if not, then performing pre-programming verification on the target erasure area, and after the pre-programming verification passes, performing the erasure operation on the target erasure area. The method of the present application can eliminate the unnecessary pre-programming verification process while ensuring the target erasure area is in a full-erasure state before the erasure operation, thus saving erasure time and simplifying the erasure process.“

The patent application was filed on April 24, 2014 (14/897,646).