Patent ID: 7675780

Claim:
A non-volatile memory system comprising: a plurality of charge storage elements; a charge pump providing sequentially program pulses where the amplitude of each of at least some of the pulses increases relative to a prior pulse during a programming cycle for programming said plurality of charge storage elements, wherein effective program times of the program pulses decrease with increasing amplitudes of the program pulses; and a device that generates a plurality of program time control signals in response to signals indicative of different amplitudes of the pulses provided by the charge pump, said program time control signals causing program times allocated for application of the program pulses to the charge storage elements to be adjusted a plurality of times to values that correspond to different values of the amplitude of the program pulses and that cause the effective program times of the program pulses to remain substantially constant so as to reduce the number of pulses for programming said plurality of charge storage elements to a predetermined state.