摘要 |
<p>A method for erasing a Flash EPROM array (AR) includes applying a series of erase pulses to all of the subarrays (S1,S2, etc.) of a Flash EPROM array (AR) simultaneously. Between each erase pulse, the memory cells (10) of each subarray (S1,S2, etc.) are simultaneously checked one row at a time and one column position at a time, to see whether or not any cell (10) is over-erased. If, at any time during the method a cell (10) is found to be over-erased, the over-erased condition is corrected and the erase procedure continues, but with erase pulses applied only to those subarrays (S1,S2, etc.) having non-erased memory cells (10) as in prior-art subarray erase procedures. Under almost all circumstances, the method of this invention decreases over-all erase time.</p> |