Storage method involving change of resistance state
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMamoru Miyawaki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A storage device has, on a substrate, a first semiconductor region of one conductivity type, and second and third semiconductor regions, of a conductivity type opposite to the one conductivity type, contiguous to the first semiconductor region. A first electrode is formed on a, and spaced by an insulating region for isolating the second and third semiconductor regions, and a second electrode is formed on the first electrode and spaced from the latter by another. The resistance between the first and second electrodes is changed as needed from a high-resistance state to a low-resistance state.
Claims10
A method for writing information into a storage device comprising the steps of:
- preparing the storage device having plural memory cells each of which comprises, on a substrate, a first semiconductor region of one conductivity type, second and third semiconductor regions of a conductivity type opposite to the one conductivity type, which are contiguous to the first semiconductor region, a first electrode which is formed on a region between the second and third semiconductor regions and spaced from that region by an insulating layer, and a second electrode formed on the first electrode and spaced from the first electrode by an insulating layer, and
- using the storage device by changing a resistance between the first and second electrodes of a selected one of the memory cells from a high-resistance state to a low-resistance state.
A method for reading information from a storage device comprising the steps of:
- preparing the storage device having plural memory cells each of which comprises a first semiconductor region of one conductivity type, second and third semiconductor regions of a conductivity type opposite to the one conductivity type, which are contiguous to the first semiconductor region, a first electrode which is formed on a region between the second and third semiconductor regions and spaced from that region by an insulating layer, and a second electrode formed on the first electrode and spaced from the first electrode by an insulating layer,
- wherein the memory cells include a memory cell having a higher resistance between the first and second electrodes and a memory cell having lower resistance between the first and second electrodes;
- and
- reading the information by applying a voltage which does not change the resistance state of the high-resistance state of the memory cell into a low-resistance state to the second electrode of the plural memory cells.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.