Method and apparatus for operating charge trapping nonvolatile memory

摘要

A memory cell with a charge trapping structure is operated by measuring current between the substrate region of the memory cell and at least one of the source region of the memory cell and the drain region of the memory cell. The read operation decreases the coupling between different parts of the charge trapping structure when other parts of the charge trapping structure store data that are not of interest. The sensing window of the memory cell can be greatly improved by this read operation. The memory cell is erased by increasing the net positive charge on the memory cell and programmed by increasing the net negative charge on the memory cell.