Systems for soft programming non-volatile memory utilizing individual verification and additional soft programming of subsets of memory cells

1. A non-volatile memory system, comprising:

a set of non-volatile storage elements, said set includes a first subset of non-volatile storage elements and a second subset of non-volatile storage elements; and

managing circuitry in communication with said set of non-volatile storage elements, said managing circuitry soft programs said set of non-volatile storage elements by:

applying one or more soft programming pulses to each non-volatile storage element of said set until said set is verified as soft programmed,

inhibiting soft programming of said first subset of non-volatile storage elements after said set is verified as soft programmed, and

applying one or more additional soft programming pulses to said second subset of non-volatile storage elements while inhibiting soft programming of said first subset.

2. The non-volatile memory system of claim 1 , wherein said managing circuitry:

verifies whether said set of non-volatile storage elements is soft programmed in between applying each of said one or more soft programming pulses, said managing circuitry verifies whether said set is soft programmed by verifying whether said first subset is soft programmed while excluding said second subset from verification.

3. The non-volatile memory system of claim 1 , wherein said managing circuitry:

verifies whether said second subset of non-volatile storage elements is soft programmed in between applying each of said one or more additional soft programming pulses, said managing circuitry excludes said first subset from verification while verifying whether said second subset is soft programmed.

4. The non-volatile memory system of claim 1 , wherein:

applying said one or more soft programming pulses includes increasing a size of said one or more soft programming pulses by a first step size in between applying each of said one or more soft programming pulses; and

applying said one or more additional soft programming pulses includes increasing a size of said one or more additional soft programming pulses by a second step size in between applying each of said one or more additional soft programming pulses.

5. The non-volatile memory system of claim 4 , wherein:

said one or more soft programming pulses includes a last soft programming pulse applied to said set before said set is verified as successfully soft programmed; and

said applying said one or more additional soft programming pulses includes, before applying a first of said one or more additional soft programming pulses, increasing a size of said last soft programming pulse by a third step size for said first of said one or more additional soft programming pulses.

6. The non-volatile memory system of claim 5 , wherein:

said first step size and said second step size are a same step size.

7. The non-volatile memory system of claim 1 , wherein said applying said one or more soft programming pulses includes:

decreasing a size of said one or more soft programming pulses by a first step size after applying a first soft programming pulse if said set is not verified as soft programmed after application of said first soft programming pulse; and

increasing said size of said one or more soft programming pulses by a second step size after applying a second soft programming pulse if said set is not verified as soft programmed after application of said second soft programming pulse.

8. The non-volatile memory system of claim 1 , wherein:

said first subset of non-volatile storage elements are interior non-volatile storage elements of said set; and

said second subset of non-volatile storage elements are end non-volatile storage elements of said set.

9. The non-volatile memory system of claim 8 , wherein:

said second subset includes a first non-volatile storage element adjacent to a first select gate for said set and a second non-volatile storage element adjacent to a second select gate for said set.

10. The non-volatile memory system of claim 9 , wherein:

said second subset further includes a third non-volatile storage element adjacent to said first non-volatile storage element and a fourth non-volatile storage element adjacent to said second non-volatile storage element.

11. The non-volatile memory system of claim 1 , wherein:

said set of non-volatile storage elements is a NAND string.

12. The non-volatile memory system of claim 1 , wherein:

said set of non-volatile storage elements is a set of multi-state flash memory devices.

13. The non-volatile memory system of claim 1 , wherein:

said managing circuitry includes at least one of a controller, a state machine, and a row controller.

14. The non-volatile memory system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a plurality of word lines in communication with said set of non-volatile storage elements, said plurality including a first subset of word lines in communication with said first subset of non-volatile storage elements and a second subset of word lines in communication with said second subset of non-volatile storage elements;

wherein said managing circuitry inhibits soft programming of said first subset of non-volatile storage elements after said set is verified as soft programmed by applying a positive voltage to said first subset of word lines.

15. A non-volatile memory system, comprising:

a plurality of sets of non-volatile storage elements, each of said sets includes a first subset of non-volatile storage elements and a second subset of non-volatile storage elements; and

managing circuitry in communication with said plurality of sets of non-volatile storage elements, said managing circuitry soft programs said plurality of sets of non-volatile storage elements by:

applying one or more soft programming pulses to said plurality of sets until said plurality of sets is verified as soft programmed,

inhibiting soft programming of said first subset of non-volatile storage elements in each set of non-volatile storage elements after said plurality of sets is verified as soft programmed, and

applying one or more additional soft programming pulses to said second subset of non-volatile storage elements in each set while inhibiting soft programming of said first subset in each set.

16. The non-volatile memory system of claim 15 , wherein said managing circuitry:

verifies whether said second subset of non-volatile storage elements in each set is soft programmed in between applying each of said one or more additional soft programming pulses, said second subsets are verified as soft programmed when a predetermined number of said second subsets are verified as soft programmed, said managing circuitry verifies whether said second subset in each set is soft programmed while excluding said first subsets in each set from verification.

17. The non-volatile memory system of claim 15 , wherein:

said applying said one or more soft programming pulses includes:

decreasing a size of said one or more soft programming pulses by a first step size after applying a first soft programming pulse if said plurality of sets is not verified as soft programmed after application of said first soft programming pulse, and

increasing said size of said one or more soft programming pulses by a second step size after applying a second soft programming pulse if said plurality of sets is not verified as soft programmed after application of said second soft programming pulse; and

said applying one or more additional soft programming pulses includes:

in between applying each of said one or more additional soft programming pulses, increasing a size of said one or more additional soft programming pulses by a third step size.

18. The non-volatile memory system of claim 17 , wherein:

said one or more soft programming pulses includes a last soft programming pulse applied to said plurality of sets before said plurality of sets is verified as successfully soft programmed; and

said applying said one or more additional soft programming pulses includes, before applying a first of said one or more additional soft programming pulses, increasing a size of said last soft programming pulse by a fourth step size for said first of said one or more additional soft programming pulses.

19. The non-volatile memory system of claim 18 , wherein:

said second step size and said third step size are a same size.

20. The non-volatile memory system of claim 15 , wherein said managing circuitry:

verifies whether said plurality of sets of non-volatile storage elements is soft programmed in between applying each of said one or more soft programming pulses by verifying whether said first subsets of non-volatile storage elements in each set are soft programmed while excluding said second subsets of non-volatile storage elements in each set from verification; and

inhibits further soft programming during said one or more soft programming pulses for each set of said plurality that verifies as being soft programmed.

21. The non-volatile memory system of claim 20 , further comprising:

a plurality of word lines in communication with said plurality of sets of non-volatile storage elements, said plurality including a first subset of word lines in communication with said first subsets of non-volatile storage elements and a second subset of word lines in communication with said second subsets of non-volatile storage elements; and

a plurality of bit lines, each set of non-volatile storage elements being associated with one of said bit lines;

wherein said managing circuitry inhibits further soft programming for each set of said plurality that verifies as being soft programmed by applying an inhibit voltage to said bit line with which said each set is associated; and

wherein said managing circuitry inhibits soft programming of said first subset of non-volatile storage elements in each set after said plurality of sets is verified as soft programmed by applying an inhibit voltage to each word line of said first subset of word lines.

22. The non-volatile memory system of claim 15 , further comprising:

each set of said plurality of sets of non-volatile storage elements is a NAND string including a plurality of series connected non-volatile flash memory cells; and

said first subsets of non-volatile storage elements are interior with respect to said second subsets of non-volatile storage elements.

23. The non-volatile memory system of claim 15 , wherein said managing circuitry verifies that said plurality of sets is soft programmed when a predetermined number of said sets are verified as soft programmed.

24. A non-volatile memory system, comprising:

a set of non-volatile storage elements, said set includes a first subset of non-volatile storage elements and a second subset of non-volatile storage elements; and

managing circuitry in communication with said set of non-volatile storage elements, said managing circuitry soft-programs said set of non-volatile storage elements by:

applying a soft programming voltage to each non-volatile storage element in said set,

verifying whether said set of non-volatile storage elements is soft programmed,

repeating said applying and verifying until said set of non-volatile storage elements is verified as soft programmed,

applying said soft programming voltage to each non-volatile storage element in said second subset of said set of non-volatile storage elements after verifying that said set of non-volatile storage elements is soft programmed, and

verifying whether said second subset of non-volatile storage elements is soft programmed while excluding said first subset from verification.

25. The non-volatile memory system of claim 24 , wherein:

verifying whether said set of non-volatile storage elements is soft programmed includes verifying whether said first subset of non-volatile storage elements is soft programmed while excluding said second subset of non-volatile storage elements from verification.

26. The non-volatile memory system of claim 24 , wherein:

said set of non-volatile storage elements is a NAND string including a plurality of series connected non-volatile flash memory cells.