Patents by Inventor Daniel L. Auclair

Daniel L. Auclair has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7839685
    Abstract: Soft errors occur during normal use of a solid-state memory such as EEPROM or Flash EEPROM. A soft error results from the programmed threshold voltage of a memory cell being drifted from its originally intended level. The error is initially not readily detected during normal read until the cumulative drift becomes so severe that it develops into a hard error. Data could be lost if enough of these hard errors swamps available error correction codes in the memory. A memory device and techniques therefor are capable of detecting these drifts and substantially maintaining the threshold voltage of each memory cell to its intended level throughout the use of the memory device, thereby resisting the development of soft errors into hard errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Jeffrey Craig, John S. Mangan, Robert D. Norman, Daniel C. Guterman, Sanjay Mehrotra
  • Publication number: 20100020616
    Abstract: Soft errors occur during normal use of a solid-state memory such as EEPROM or Flash EEPROM. A soft error results from the programmed threshold voltage of a memory cell being drifted from its originally intended level. The error is initially not readily detected during normal read until the cumulative drift becomes so severe that it develops into a hard error. Data could be lost if enough of these hard errors swamps available error correction codes in the memory. A memory device and techniques therefor are capable of detecting these drifts and substantially maintaining the threshold voltage of each memory cell to its intended level throughout the use of the memory device, thereby resisting the development of soft errors into hard errors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2009
    Publication date: January 28, 2010
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Jeffrey Craig, John S. Mangan, Robert D. Norman, Daniel C. Guterman, Sanjay Mehrotra
  • Patent number: 7616484
    Abstract: Soft errors occur during normal use of a solid-state memory such as EEPROM or Flash EEPROM. A soft error results from the programmed threshold voltage of a memory cell being drifted from its originally intended level. The error is initially not readily detected during normal read until the cumulative drift becomes so severe that it develops into a hard error. Data could be lost if enough of these hard errors swamps available error correction codes in the memory. A memory device and techniques therefor are capable of detecting these drifts and substantially maintaining the threshold voltage of each memory cell to its intended level throughout the use of the memory device, thereby resisting the development of soft errors into hard errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Jeffrey Craig, John S. Mangan, Robert D. Norman, Daniel C. Guterman, Sanjay Mehrotra
  • Patent number: 7548461
    Abstract: Soft errors occur during normal use of a solid-state memory such as EEPROM or Flash EEPROM. A soft error results from the programmed threshold voltage of a memory cell being drifted from its originally intended level. The error is initially not readily detected during normal read until the cumulative drift becomes so severe that it develops into a hard error. Data could be lost if enough of these hard errors swamps available error correction codes in the memory. A memory device and techniques therefor are capable of detecting these drifts and substantially maintaining the threshold voltage of each memory cell to its intended level throughout the use of the memory device, thereby resisting the development of soft errors into hard errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2009
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Jeffrey Craig, John S. Mangan, Robert D. Norman, Daniel C. Guterman, Sanjay Mehrotra
  • Patent number: 7437631
    Abstract: Soft errors occur during normal use of a solid-state memory such as EEPROM or Flash EEPROM. A soft error results from the programmed threshold voltage of a memory cell being drifted from its originally intended level. The error is initially not readily detected during normal read until the cumulative drift becomes so severe that it develops into a hard error. Data could be lost if enough of these hard errors swamps available error correction codes in the memory. A memory device and techniques therefor are capable of detecting these drifts and substantially maintaining the threshold voltage of each memory cell to its intended level throughout the use of the memory device, thereby resisting the development of soft errors into hard errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2008
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Jeffrey Craig, John S. Mangan, Robert D. Norman, Daniel C. Guterman, Sanjay Mehrotra
  • Publication number: 20040237010
    Abstract: Soft errors occur during normal use of a solid-state memory such as EEPROM or Flash EEPROM. A soft error results from the programmed threshold voltage of a memory cell being drifted from its originally intended level. The error is initially not readily detected during normal read until the cumulative drift becomes so severe that it develops into a hard error. Data could be lost if enough of these hard errors swamps available error correction codes in the memory. A memory device and techniques therefor are capable of detecting these drifts and substantially maintaining the threshold voltage of each memory cell to its intended level throughout the use of the memory device, thereby resisting the development of soft errors into hard errors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2004
    Publication date: November 25, 2004
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Jeffrey Craig, John S. Mangan, Robert D. Norman, Daniel C. Guterman, Sanjay Mehrotra
  • Patent number: 6049899
    Abstract: Soft errors occur during normal use of a solid-state memory such as EEPROM or Flash EEPROM. A soft error results from the programmed threshold voltage of a memory cell being drifted from its originally intended level. The error is initially not readily detected during normal read until the cumulative drift becomes so severe that it develops into a hard error. Data could be lost if enough of these hard errors swamps available error correction codes in the memory. A memory device and techniques therefor are capable of detecting these drifts and substantially maintaining the threshold voltage of each memory cell to its intended level throughout the use of the memory device, thereby resisting the development of soft errors into hard errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2000
    Assignee: Zilog, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Jeffrey Craig, John S. Mangan, Robert D. Norman, Daniel C. Guterman, Sanjay Mehrotra
  • Patent number: 6016530
    Abstract: Solid-state flash electrically erasable and programmable read-only-memory ("flash EEPROM") system is combined with a rotating disk drive memory to provide mass program and data storage in a computer system. A common memory controller directs system generated memory addresses in a disk format to either the EEPROM system or disk memory. The blocks of data handled by the EEPROM system have the same size and other attributes as sectors of data handled by the disk system, thereby making it transparent to the computer system processor as to whether it is accessing the EEPROM or disk portion of the storage system. A particular program or data file may then be stored in the portion of the memory system best suited to handle it, and thus take advantage of the different features and characteristics of EEPROM and magnetic media disk memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2000
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Eliyahou Harari
  • Patent number: 5778418
    Abstract: Solid-state flash electrically erasable and programmable read-only-memory ("flash EEPROM") system is combined with a rotating disk drive memory to provide mass program and data storage in a computer system. A common memory controller directs system generated memory addresses in a disk format to either the EEPROM system or disk memory. The blocks of data handled by the EEPROM system have the same size and other attributes as sectors of data handled by the disk system, thereby making it transparent to the computer system processor as to whether it is accessing the EEPROM or disk portion of the storage system. A particular program or data file may then be stored in the portion of the memory system best suited to handle it, and thus take advantage of the different features and characteristics of EEPROM and magnetic media disk memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 7, 1998
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Eliyahou Harari
  • Patent number: 5657332
    Abstract: Soft errors occur during normal use of a solid-state memory such as EEPROM or Flash EEPROM. A soft error results from the programmed threshold voltage of a memory cell being drifted from its originally intended level. The error is initially not readily detected during normal read until the cumulative drift becomes so severe that it develops into a hard error. Data could be lost if enough of these hard errors swamps available error correction codes in the memory. A memory device and techniques therefor are capable of detecting these drifts and substantially maintaining the threshold voltage of each memory cell to its intended level throughout the use of the memory device, thereby resisting the development of soft errors into hard errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 12, 1997
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Jeffrey Craig, John S. Mangan, Robert D. Norman, Daniel C. Guterman, Sanjay Mehrotra
  • Patent number: 5532962
    Abstract: Soft errors occur during normal use of a solid-state memory such as EEPROM or Flash EEPROM. A soft error results from the programmed threshold voltage of a memory cell being drifted from its originally intended level. The error is initially not readily detected during normal read until the cumulative drift becomes so severe that it develops into a hard error. Data could be lost if enough of these hard errors swamps available error correction codes in the memory. A memory device and techniques therefor are capable of detecting these drifts and substantially maintaining the threshold voltage of each memory cell to its intended level throughout the use of the memory device, thereby resisting the development of soft errors into hard errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 1995
    Date of Patent: July 2, 1996
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Jeffrey Craig, John S. Mangan, Robert D. Norman, Daniel C. Guterman, Sanjay Mehrotra
  • Patent number: D439579
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2001
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel L. Auclair, Leon Malmed, Anthony J. Knights, Johnny H. Chen