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US 6,603,678 B2Granted
Thermally-assisted switching of magnetic memory elements
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsJanice H. Nickel, Lung T. Tran
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A magnetic memory element is written to by heating the memory element and applying at least one magnetic field to the memory element. The memory element is heated via heating lines which can be formed in a single path or plurality of paths. Each path has one end tied to a reference potential, and the other end coupled to a current source via a transistor.
Claims10
An information storage device comprising:
- an array of magnetic memory elements;
- and
- a plurality of heating lines extending across the array, the heating lines including heating elements for the memory elements, wherein the heating lines extend diagonally across the array.
An information storage device comprising:
- an array of magnetic memory elements;
- and
- a plurality of heating lines extending across the array, the heating lines including heating elements for the memory elements, wherein groups of heating lines are connected together to form at least one path.
An information storage device comprising:
- an array of magnetic memory elements;
- and
- a plurality of heating lines extending across the array, the heating lines including heating elements for the memory elements, wherein the heating lines have first ends that are tied together.
An information storage device comprising:
- an array of spin dependent tunneling (SDT) junctions;
- and
- a plurality of heating elements for the SDT junctions, further comprising first means for generating magnetic fields for switching of selected SDT junctions;
- and second means for causing the heating elements to apply heat to the selected SDT junctions while the magnetic fields are being applied.
1 more element
An information storage device comprising:
- an array of magnetic memory elements;
- a plurality of heating elements for the memory elements;
- first means for generating magnetic fields for switching of selected memory elements;
- and
- second means for causing the heating elements to apply heat to the selected memory elements before the magnetic fields are applied.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.