Hall effect device
OwnerMark B. Johnson, Gary A. Prinzinventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A Hall effect device comprising: (a) an electrically-conductive layer or plate having a top surface; and (b) a ferromagnetic layer comprised of a magnetic insulator. Such magnetic insulator can be a ferrite or a perovskite ferromagnetic oxide. Also, a Hall effect device can have a ferromagnetic element that is a multilayer (e.g., a bilayer), and a device in which the Hall plate comprises an indium compound, germanium or mixtures thereof. The devices are useful for a variety of applications such as a memory element in a nonvolatile random access memory array (NRAM) and as a logic gate.
Claims13
An improved Hall effect device comprising:
- a conductive film layer having a top surface and capable of carrying an electrical current;
- a ferromagnetic layer having a configurable magnetization orientation, and covering a first portion of the top surface, and not a second portion, such that a fringe magnetic field substantially normal to such surface can be generated by an edge portion of the ferromagnetic layer;
- wherein an electrical signal can be generated in response to the fringe magnetic field acting on the electrical current in the conductive film layer;
- and
- wherein the ferromagnetic layer comprises a magnetic insulator.
An improved Hall effect device comprising:
- a conductive film layer having a top surface and capable of carrying an electrical current;
- a ferromagnetic layer having a configurable magnetization orientation, and covering a first portion of the top surface, and not a second portion, such that a fringe magnetic field substantially normal to such surface can be generated by an edge portion of the ferromagnetic layer;
- wherein an electrical signal can be generated in response to the fringe magnetic field acting on the electrical current in the conductive film layer;
- and
- wherein the ferromagnetic layer comprises an alloy from the group consisting of rare earths and transition metals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.