Patent ID: 7706189

Claim:
A non-volatile storage system, comprising: a plurality of non-volatile storage elements including a selected non-volatile storage element, a first unselected non-volatile storage element and other unselected non-volatile storage elements; and one or more managing circuits in communication with said non-volatile storage elements, said one or more managing circuits apply a set of pulses to said selected non-volatile storage element and said first unselected non-volatile storage element, each pulse has a first portion with a first magnitude, an intermediate portion with an intermediate magnitude, and a second portion with a second magnitude, said intermediate magnitude is greater than said first magnitude and less than second magnitude, said one or more managing circuits increase said first magnitude, said intermediate magnitude, and said second magnitude with each successive pulse, said first magnitude and said intermediate magnitude are not large enough to intentionally cause programming of said selected non-volatile storage element, said second magnitude is large enough to cause programming of said selected non-volatile storage element, said one or more managing circuits apply other signals to said other unselected non-volatile storage elements.