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US 7,257,021 B2Granted
Non-volatile ferromagnetic memory having sensor circuitry shared with its state change circuitry
AssigneesPageant Technologies, Inc., Estancia Limited
InventorsRichard M. Lienau, James Craig Stephenson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A ferromagnetic memory cell is disclosed having a base (21), oriented in a horizontal plane, a bit (19), made of a ferromagnetic material, and a sense/write line (20), positioned proximate the bit (19) sufficient to detect the directed polarity of the bit when a first current is applied thereto, and to direct the polarity of the bit when a second larger current is applied thereto in a given direction. The bit (19) has a height that is oriented perpendicular to the horizontal plane of the base, and a polarity that can be directed along the height.
Claims18
A memory device, comprising:
- a magnetic bit;
- a sense/write line proximate the magnetic bit;
- and
- a sense/write circuit connected to the sense/write line, the sense/write circuit including a first driver and a second driver to generate a bidirectional write current through the sense/write line to set a polarity in the magnetic bit,
- wherein the first driver drives a smaller unidirectional sense current through the sense/write line detected by the second driver to determine the polarity in the magnetic bit.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.