Patent ID: 8107292

Claim:
A three dimensional stacked nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprising: a semiconductor substrate; a memory cell array comprised of first and second blocks disposed on the semiconductor substrate side by side in a first direction; and a first driver disposed on one end of the memory cell array in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, wherein each of the first and second blocks is comprised of at least three conductive layers stacked on the semiconductor substrate by being insulated from each other, a bit line disposed on the at least three conductive layers by being insulated therefrom, and columnar semiconductors passing through the at least three conductive layers, wherein an uppermost layer of the at least three conductive layers is comprised of first select gate lines extending in the second direction, a lowermost layer of the at least three conductive layers is a second select gate line, remaining conductive layers excluding the uppermost layer and the lowermost layer of the at least three conductive layers are a word line, wherein select gate transistors are comprised of the first select gate lines and the columnar semiconductors, and the second select gate line and the columnar semiconductors, respectively and memory cells are comprised of the word line and the columnar semiconductors, respectively, a selected first cell unit and non-selected second cell units comprised of one of the columnar semiconductors, memory cells, the first select gate line and the second select gate line, wherein the first block has the selected first cell unit including a memory cell to be read and the non-selected second cell units without a memory cell to be read, and the selected first cell unit and the non-selected second cell units are connected to the bit line, wherein a read potential or a transfer potential higher than the read potential is applied to the word line in the first block in a state that a ground potential is applied to a channel of a memory cell existing nearer to the bit line side than a memory cell in the second cell unit to which the read potential is applied, after which all the memory cells in the second cell unit are cut off from the bit line, the bit line is set to a precharge potential, and read is performed to the memory cell to be read in the first cell unit, and wherein the read potential and the transfer potential are not applied to the word line in the second block in the read.