Patent ID: 7577026

Claim:
A method for operating non-volatile storage, comprising: during a first time period of a programming operation, boosting at least first and second channel regions of an unselected NAND string which are separated by an intermediate channel region while isolating the intermediate channel region from the at least first and second channel regions, the unselected NAND string is in a set of NAND strings, each NAND string comprises a plurality of non-volatile storage elements, and the set of NAND strings is in communication with a set of word lines; and during a second time period of the programming operation which follows the first time period, continuing to isolate the intermediate channel region from the at least first and second channel regions, boosting the intermediate channel region, and applying a program voltage via a selected word line of the set of word lines, the selected word line traverses a location of the intermediate channel region.