Patent attributes
A method for erasing a non-volatile memory device performs a block erase operation. The cells are then soft programmed and erase verified to determine if the threshold voltages indicate erased cells. A target cell is programmed to a first threshold voltage and verified. Adjacent cells are programmed and verified. The parasitic capacitance between the target cells and the adjacent cells causes the threshold voltage of the target cell to increase to a new threshold voltage with the programming of the adjacent cells. A difference between the new threshold voltage and the first threshold voltage is determined. If the difference is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold, the target cell is soft programmed until the difference is less than the predetermined threshold.
