How does flash memory work?
Flash memory can be programmed and reprogrammed as well as electronically erased. It is also a non-volatile form of computer memory and one of the most user friendly forms as well. Most people have seen this form of memory in the form of USB flash drives and in the memory cards used for game consoles.
Flash memory can be programmed and reprogrammed as well as electronically erased. It is also a non-volatile form of computer memory and one of the most user friendly forms as well. Most people have seen this form of memory in the form of USB flash drives and in the memory cards used for game consoles. Flash memory is rapidly replacing EEPROM (a byte programmable form of memory) whenever a large amount of solid state storage is needed. Add to the benefits of costs and the versatility of flash memory and it becomes the only memory of choice for some items. Items that make use of the advantages of flash memory include laptops, PDAs, digital cameras, audio players, and phones. Non-volatile memory in computers is any memory that does not require a power source to retain information. Flash is non-volatile and you cannot lose your information unless you erase it or you hadn’t saved it from a RAM form of memory if you pulled an application up to use on your laptop.
Flash memory is a form of non-volatile computer memory that is electrically programmed and erased. Flash memory is a type of EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) chip. It has a grid of columns and rows that have transistors at each intersection. A thin layer of oxide separates each transistor from each other. One transistor is called the floating gate and the other is the control gate. The link between the two gates is called the wordline and as long as the link is in place, the cell has a value of 1. If the link is broken, the cell’s value becomes 0. To change the value of a 0 cell, a process called Fowler-Nordheim tunneling must occur. When Fowler-Nordheim Tunneling occurs, electrons in the cell are altered. With the altering of the electrons, your data is either programmed or erased. Flash Memory Operation Diagram How to Access Flash Memory There are several different formats of flash memory cards on the market.
Flash memory cells individually resemble metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) with an extra electrode. N-channel MOSFETs consist of two highly doped N-type silicon spots (source and drain) in a lightly doped P-type substrate connected to ground. Electrical connections are made to these spots, and a thin non-conducting dielectric layer covers all. A metal or other conducting gate electrode overlays the dielectric between the source and drain. Applying a positive voltage to the gate sets up an electric field that drives the P-type charge carriers (holes) away from the region between the source and drain, creating a non-conductive depletion region there. Above a threshold voltage, the electric field becomes so strong it creates an inversion layer dominated by N-type charge carriers that pass current between the source and drain. The additional electrode in a flash memory cell is a floating gate, completely surrounded by insulating dielectric. Any charge the gate pi
