Patent ID: 8656092

Claim:
A method for reading a memory device having a plurality of memory cells that each simultaneously store a lower page of data and an upper page of data, the memory device comprising a primary data latch and a secondary data latch, the method comprising: sensing memory cell data; storing the memory cell data in the primary data latch; reading flag data from the primary data latch; if the flag data indicates that a lower page read operation is not requested: transferring upper page memory cell data from the primary data latch to the secondary data latch; and reading the data from the secondary data latch; and if the flag data indicates that the lower page read operation is requested: generating a lower page read voltage to read the lower page of data from memory cell; transferring upper page and lower page memory cell data from the primary data latch to the secondary data latch; and reading the data from the secondary data latch.