Patent ID: 9704580
Date: 2017-07-11
CPC Classifications: G11C

Claim:
1. A non-volatile memory comprising: at least first and second groups of a plurality of non-volatile memory cells, each non-volatile memory cell including a respective cell transistor that includes a source terminal, a drain terminal, a gate terminal and a body terminal, each of the first and second groups of non-volatile memory cells commonly sharing first and second cell bodies respectively, the first cell body being constituted by the body terminals of the cell transistors of the first group of non-volatile memory cells, the second cell body being constituted by the body terminals of the cell transistors of the second group of non-volatile memory cells, the first cell body being different and electrically isolated from the second cell body, the body terminals of the cell transistors of the first group of non-volatile memory cells being configured to receive an erase voltage to erase the first group of non-volatile memory cells, and the body terminals of the cell transistors of the second group of non-volatile memory cells being configured to receive the erase voltage to erase the second group of non-volatile memory cells; and a row circuit decoder configured to provide i) memory array signals to the gate terminals of the cell transistors of one of the first and second groups of non-volatile memory cells; and ii) the erase voltage to one of the first and second cell bodies for carrying out associated erasure in response to a row address, wherein the row decoder includes pass block circuits for receiving global memory array signals and a global erase voltage, the row decoder further configured to enable a subset of the pass block circuits for passing the global memory array signals as the memory array signals and passing the global erase voltage as the erase voltage to the respective cell body of the one of the first and second groups of non-volatile memory cells for erasing the one of the first and second groups of non-volatile memory cells.