Patent ID: 8130551

Claim:
A method for performing an erase operation in a non-volatile storage system, comprising: applying a plurality of erase pulses to a substrate of a set of non-volatile storage elements, the plurality of erase pulses include erase pulses which increase step-wise in amplitude; enforcing a maximum voltage which the plurality of erase pulses cannot exceed; performing a verify operation involving the set of non-volatile storage elements after each erase pulse of the plurality of erase pulses, each verify operation determines whether at least one non-volatile storage element in the set of non-volatile storage elements is conductive; and in response to determining that the at least one non-volatile storage element is conductive, applying at least one extra erase pulse to the substrate of the set of non-volatile storage elements which is not followed by an associated verify operation, the at least one extra erase pulse is stepped up from a last erase pulse of the plurality of erase pulses.