Electronic – Will reading EE/E/PROM wear it out

eeprom

After reading some answers on SuperUser, I started thinking: Can EE/E/PROM be damaged by only reading it, with no writing at all?

I've read several datasheets for EEPROMS and products that contain them and all I've ever seen were write and erase cycles. I do know that just reading few datasheets does not make me an expert, but up until now I was convinced that you can't wear out EEPROM and relatives just by reading them.

After some searching, I couldn't find a definitive answer which would convince me that reading an EEPROM can wear it out, so I'm asking here.

Best Answer

No, they can't be damaged only by reading.

But keep in mind that a simple read by a "complex" operating system could be followed automatically by one or more write (an example of this behaviour is the change of file last access time)