LOW LEAKAGE, LOW THRESHOLD VOLTAGE, SPLIT-GATE FLASH CELL OPERATION

摘要

A method of reading a memory device having rows and columns of memory cells formed on a substrate, where each memory cell includes spaced apart first (16) and second (14) regions with a channel region (18) therebetween, a floating gate (22) disposed over a first portion of the channel region, a select gate (20) disposed over a second portion of the channel region, a control gate (26) disposed over the floating gate, and an erase gate (24) disposed over the first region. The method includes placing a small positive voltage on the unselected source lines (16), and/or a small negative voltage on the unselected word lines (20) during the read operation to suppress subthreshold leakage and thereby improve read performance.