Patent ID: 7800950

Claim:
A method of operating a flash memory device, the method comprising: selectively applying different self-boosting techniques to a string of serially connected memory cells responsive to different voltage levels of a programming voltage applied to a selected word line, wherein selectively applying different self-boosting techniques to a string of serially-connected memory cells responsive to different voltage levels of a programming voltage applied to a selected word line comprises selectively applying non-local self boosting and local self-boosting responsive to different voltage levels of the programming voltage applied to the selected word line, wherein selectively applying non-local self-boosting and local self-boosting comprises selectively applying non-local self-boosting and local self-boosting to a first string of serially-connected cells responsive to different voltage levels of the programming voltage during an incremental step pulse programming (ISPP) of a selected cell of a second string of serially-connected cells and wherein the ISPP programming comprises varying the programming voltage responsive to testing a threshold voltage of the selected cell.