National Digital Research Centre Assigned Patent

National Digital Research Centre Limited, Dublin, Ireland, has been assigned a patent (8,984,210) developed by Ryan, Conor Maurice, Limerick, Ireland and Sullivan, Joseph, Shannon, Ireland, for a “system and methods for extending operational lifetime of flash memory.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The present invention is directed to a method for increasing the operational lifetime of a flash memory device, wherein, the method comprises varying the operating parameters of the flash memory device over the lifetime of the flash memory device. The advantage of providing a method which varies the operating parameters of a flash memory device is that the operational lifetime of the flash memory device will be increased. Relatively low voltages and relatively short voltage periods may be used initially to write to, read from and erase the flash cells in the flash memory device. As time passes, the flash cells in the flash memory device will begin to degrade and it will be necessary to increase the voltage and the period of the voltage applied to the flash memory device in order to ensure that the correct write, read and/or erase commands are carried out. The invention is also directed towards a flash memory device.“

The patent application was filed on September 23, 2010 (13/497,569).