Magnetic spin transistor hybrid circuit element
OwnerMark B. Johnsoninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A new nonvolatile hybrid memory cell is provided. The cell is comprised of a magnetic spin transistor storage element and one or two FET isolation elements. The magnetic spin transistor stores data indefinitely while drawing zero quiescent power. The FET is operated as a voltage controlled resistor, isolating the cell with a large electrical impedance when not powered and accessing the contents of the cell with a low impedance path when addressed by an appropriate voltage select signal. The cell can be used in an array of cells in a nonvolatile random access memory.
Claims35
A hybrid memory cell comprising:
- a magnetic spin transistor memory element;
- a memory cell selector coupled to said memory element;
- and
- wherein data can be read from said memory element by controlling said selector.
A hybrid spin transistor memory cell comprising:
- a magnetic spin transistor memory element, said memory element including a ferromagnetic emitter, a paramagnetic base having a base reference voltage, and a ferromagnetic collector;
- and
- a memory cell selector device coupled to said memory element for controlling read and write operations to said memory element in response to a selector signal;
- a memory cell isolator device for isolating the base of the magnetic spin transistor storage element when said isolator is not selected by the selector signal, and for providing a conduction path for said reference voltage when said isolator is selected by said selector signal.
A memory array comprising:
- a plurality of hybrid memory cells, each of said cells including:
- (a) a plurality of magnetic spin transistor memory elements;
- (b) a plurality of memory cell selectors coupled to said memory elements such that each memory element includes at least one corresponding memory selector;
- wherein data can be read from each of said memory cells by controlling said corresponding selector.
A method of implementing a hybrid memory cell, said cell having a magnetic spin transistor and a selector element, comprising the steps of:
- inputting a data signal to said magnetic spin transistor using inductive coupling to a ferromagnetic layer of said magnetic spin transistor, said data signal corresponding to a data value to be stored in said memory cell;
- providing a cell select signal to said selector element, and a read signal to said magnetic spin transistor, to read out the data value stored in said memory cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.