ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,469,569, issued on Nov. 11, was assigned to Sandisk Technologies Inc. (Milpitas, Calif.).
"Smart erase inhibit" was invented by Ming Wang (Shanghai), Liang Li (Shanghai) and Wei Li (Shanghai).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Technology to prevent over-erase in NAND memory. Each bit line involved in erase is connected to multiple NAND strings. Erase verify of each NAND string is performed at a final target level and a level that is somewhat higher than the final target level. Bit lines are placed into three groups based on the erase status of the NAND strings connected to the bit line. The erase voltage applied to the bit lines in the next e...