METHOD AND DEVICE FOR POWER-SAVING MULTI-PASS SENSING IN NON-VOLATILE MEMORY

摘要

Power-saving techniques are employed in sensing a group of non-volatile memory cells in parallel. In one aspect, coupling of the memory cells to their bit lines are delayed during a precharge operation in order to reduced the cells' currents working against the precharge. In another aspect, a power-consuming precharge period is minimized by preemptively starting the sensing in a multi-pass sensing operation. High current cells not detected as a result of the premature sensing will still be able to be detected in a subsequent pass.