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US 2010/0141322 A1Published application
Non-Volatile State Retention Latch
AssigneeQUALCOMM Incorporated
InventorLew G. Chua-Eoan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Electronic circuits use latches including a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structure and logic circuitry arranged to produce a selective state in the MTJ structure. Because the selective state is maintained magnetically, the state of the latch or electronic circuit can be maintained even while power is removed from the electronic device.
Claims24
A latch for use in an electronic circuit, said latch comprising:
- a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structure;
- and
- logic circuitry configured to produce a selected mutually exclusive state in said MTJ structure before collapsing power in the electronic circuit.
A method for maintaining a state in an electronic circuit, said method comprising:
- receiving an input signal;
- receiving a save signal;
- establishing a polarity in a free magnetic layer of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structure, responsive to a combinational relationship between said input signal and said save signal, wherein said state of said electronic circuit is determined by a polarity relationship between said free magnetic layer and a fixed magnetic layer.
An electronic circuit comprising:
- at least one non-magnetic latch;
- a magnetic latch coupled to said at least one non-magnetic latch and configured to hold a state representative of a current state of said at least one non-magnetic latch;
- and
- means, operative when said electronic circuit is powered up, to restore said current state to said at least one non-magnetic latch using said state.
1 more element
An electronic circuit comprising:
- a master non-magnetic latch configured to hold a current state;
- and
- a magnetic latch coupled to said master non-magnetic latch and zero or more slave non-magnetic latches, said magnetic latch configured to retain a selected state corresponding to said current state, wherein said magnetic latch retains said selected state while power is removed from said electronic circuit and restores said current state to said master non-magnetic latch using said selected state when said power is restored to said electronic circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.