Electronic device with a memory cell

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates to an electronic device having a memory cell comprising a resistive storage element which can be switched between a first storage state having a first conductivity and a second storage state having a second conductivity.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.

#FIG. 1 is a schematic circuit diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a schematic circuit diagram of a first embodiment of a memory cell of the electronic device of FIG. 1;

#Overview

#One aspect of the present invention provides an electronic device having a memory cell comprising a resistive storage element, the memory cell and the electronic device providing a reduced risk of corruption of the information stored therein by electromagnetic interference. The electronic device may be, for example, a non-volatile memory device with a large number of resistive storage elements each storing one bit of information whereby each of the storage states is identified with one of the bit states “0” and “1”.

#Each memory cell may be provided with a transistor or another kind of switch, which serves as a protective switch. This protective switch, in an idle state of the memory cell when no data is written to or read from the memory cell, either short-circuits the resistive storage element or insulates the second terminal not coupled to the conventional cell transistor from ground or any other reference potential line. In both cases, any electromagnetic interference from outside the memory cell generally does not induce a voltage across the resistive storage element, or at least the induced voltage is considerably reduced by the protective switch.