Patent ID: 7983078

Claim:
A method for operating a non-volatile storage device, the method comprising: performing an erase of a plurality of non-volatile storage elements, a set of the plurality of non-volatile storage elements includes data non-volatile storage elements and a dummy non-volatile storage element, the dummy non-volatile storage element is a neighbor to one of the data non-volatile storage elements; programming the data non-volatile storage elements, at least some of the data non-volatile storage elements experience an apparent increase in threshold voltage due to a coupling effect that occurs due to subsequent programming of another of the data non-volatile storage elements; and applying a programming voltage to the dummy non-volatile storage element after programming the data non-volatile storage elements, the programming voltage increases the threshold voltage of the dummy non-volatile storage element to a target level that compensates for lesser coupling effect experienced by the neighbor non-volatile storage element during programming of the other data non-volatile storage elements.