Patent ID: 7859913

Claim:
A semiconductor memory device comprising: a memory cell comprising a control gate and a floating gate configured to accumulate electric charges, data stored in the memory cell being erased by extracting the electric charges from the floating gate by applying an erasing voltage to the control gate so that the extracted electric charges are led to the control gate; a word line connected to the control gate of the memory cell; a decoder circuit selecting the word line; a switching circuit outputting the erasing voltage to the word line when the word line is selected by the decoder circuit; a first transistor connected between the switching circuit and the word line, the first transistor transferring the erasing voltage from the switching circuit to the word line selected by the decoder circuit; a second transistor connected between the word line and the decoder circuit; and a control circuit that turns the second transistor off when the word line is selected by the decoder circuit so that the erasing voltage transferred to the word line is not applied to the decoder circuit and turns the second transistor on when the word line is not selected by the decoder circuit so that the decoder circuit provides the word line with a non-erasing voltage through the second transistor, the non-erasing voltage being lower than the erasing voltage.