Patent ID: 9576673
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: G11C

Claim:
1. A non-volatile storage device, comprising: a selected non-volatile storage element; a charge storage device coupled to the selected non-volatile storage element and a sensing device having a control terminal coupled to the charge storage device, a pre-charge circuit and bit line connection circuit configured to develop a sense voltage on the charge storage device in response to a signal from a state machine, the sense voltage is developed based on connecting the selected non-volatile storage element to the charge storage device for a sense time; a processor configured to determine whether the sensing device activates in response to the sense voltage that was developed on the charge storage device based on connecting the selected non-volatile storage element to the charge storage device for the sense time; the processor further configured to determine a first condition of the selected non-volatile storage element with respect to a first reference level based on whether the sensing device activates in response to the sense voltage developed on the charge storage device, a voltage supply configured to modify a voltage on a second terminal of the sensing device other than the control terminal after determining the first condition in response to a signal from the state machine; the processor configured to determine whether the sensing device activates after modifying the voltage on the second terminal in response to the sense voltage that was developed on the charge storage device based on connecting the selected non-volatile storage element to the charge storage device for the sense time, the processor configured to determine a second condition of the selected non-volatile storage element with respect to a second reference level based on whether the sensing device activates in response to the sense voltage developed on the charge storage device after modifying the voltage on the second terminal of the sensing device.