Patent ID: 7031193

Claim:
A method of programming an electrically programmable memory, the method comprising: accessing a group of memory cells of an electrically programmable memory to ascertain a programming state thereof; applying a programming pulse to those memory cells in the group whose programming state is not ascertained to correspond to a desired programming state; and repeating the steps of accessing and applying for the memory cells in the group whose programming state is not ascertained to correspond to a desired programming state, wherein after the programming state of a prescribed number of memory cells in the group has been ascertained to correspond to a desired programming state, accessing again the memory cells in the group and re-ascertaining the programming state of the memory cells whose programming state was previously ascertained to correspond to a desired programming state; and applying at least one additional programming pulse to those memory cells in the group whose programming state is not re-ascertained to correspond to a desired programming state.