Patent ID: 8441853

Claim:
A method for sensing a selected non-volatile storage element in a NAND string which comprises non-volatile storage elements connected in series, and which has a source side and a drain side, the method comprising: assigning each non-volatile storage element of the NAND string to a group among multiple groups in the NAND string, the multiple groups have different sizes and extend between the source side and the drain side of the NAND string, the selected non-volatile storage element is assigned to one group of the multiple groups, the NAND string is connected at the drain side to a bit line, the bit line is connected to sensing circuitry, and a group of the multiple groups which is closest to the source side has more non-volatile storage elements of the NAND string than any other group of the multiple groups; and sensing whether a threshold voltage of the selected non-volatile storage element is above a control gate voltage using the sensing circuitry, the sensing is adjusted based on a position of the one group in the NAND string.