Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Matushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Satoru Fujii

Shunsaku Muraoka

Ryoichi Takayama

Koichi Osano

Takumi Mikawa

Kazuhiko Shimakawa

Atsushi Tomozawa

Eiji Fujii

Takeshi Takagi

Hideo Torii

Yoshihiko Kanzawa

Satoru Mitani

Takeshi Kamada

Koji Katayama

Zhiqiang Wei

Kazuhito Hatoh

Yoshihiro Tomita

Ryoko Miyanaga

Ryotaro Azuma

Hideo Ohara

Koji Arita

Teruhisa Kanbara

Junji Niikura

Toshihiro Matsumoto

Hideki Kuwajima

Hiroki Kusakabe

Yukihiro Okada

Nobuhiko Hojo

Mikinari Shimada

Shinsuke Takeguchi

Hisaaki Gyoten

Masahide Tsukamoto

Shinichi Yamamoto

Isaku Kanno

Kazunari Homma

Katsuyuki Niyada

Hirotoshi Watanabe

Shinichi Yoneda

Masumi Hattori

Satoru Ito

Masayuki Okano

Masato Hosaka

Kazufumi Nishida

Shuji Morii

Satoshi Fujii

Masafumi Kobune

Hiroyuki Akinaga

Hisashi Shima

Kazuo Yokoyama

Kaoru Matsuoka

Kohji Yuasa

Takeki Ninomiya

Yousuke N Irie

Haruyuki Sorada

Satoshi Shibutani

Shigeyuki Takao

Kiyotaka Tsuji

Taisuke Watanabe

Nobuhiro Hase

Yoshiaki Yamamoto

Osamu Watanabe

Atsushi Himeno

Kenichi Sakamoto

Kenji Tomita

Ikuo Inoue

Masayo Sugou, Legal Representative

Ryutaro Yasuhara

Aoi Tanaka

Yasutaka Noguchi

Masato Hagino

Kengo Nishio

Takehide Miyazaki

Yasuhisa Naitoh

Yasuhisa Naito

A gas sensor includes: a gas-sensitive body layer disposed above a substrate and including a metal oxide layer; a first electrode on the gas-sensitive body layer; and a second electrode on the gas-sensitive body layer, being apart from the first electrode by a gap. The gas-sensitive body layer has a resistance change characteristic that reversibly transitions to a high-resistance state and a low-resistance state on basis of a voltage applied across the first electrode and the second electrode. At least a part of the gas-sensitive body layer is exposed to the gap. The gas-sensitive body layer has a resistance that decreases when gas containing a hydrogen atom is in contact with the second electrode.

Gas sensor and fuel cell vehicle

A variable resistance non-volatile memory element includes first and second electrodes and a variable resistance layer between the electrodes. The layer has a resistance value reversibly variable based on an electrical signal. The layer includes a first variable resistance layer that includes an oxygen deficient first metal oxide containing a first metal element and oxygen, and a second variable resistance layer that includes a composite oxide containing the first metal element, a second metal element different from the first metal element, and oxygen, and having a different degree of oxygen deficiency from the first metal oxide. The composite oxide has a lower degree of oxygen deficiency than the first metal oxide. At room temperature, the composite oxide has a smaller oxygen diffusion coefficient than a second metal oxide containing the first metal element and oxygen, and having the degree of oxygen deficiency equal to that of the composite oxide.

Variable resistance non-volatile memory element and variable resistance non-volatile memory device using the element

A gas sensor device includes gas sensors and switches. The switches are connected to the respective gas sensors in series. The gas sensors each include: a first conductive layer; a second conductive layer; a metal oxide layer disposed between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer; and an insulation layer covering the first conductive layer, the second conductive layer, and the metal oxide layer and having an opening from which a portion of the second conductive layer is exposed. The resistance of the gas sensor is decreased when a gas containing a hydrogen atom comes into contact with the second conductive layer.

Gas sensor device including gas sensors and switches, gas sensor module, and gas detection method

A hydrogen detection method using a gas sensor, in which the gas sensor includes a first conductive layer; a second conductive layer including a first region having a first thickness and a second region having a second thickness larger than the first thickness; a metal oxide layer disposed between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer; and an insulation layer covering the first conductive layer, the second region of the second conductive layer, and the metal oxide layer and not covering the first region of the second conductive layer. The hydrogen detection method includes allowing a gas to come into contact with the first region of the second conductive layer; and detecting a hydrogen gas contained in the gas by detecting a decrease in resistance between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer.

Hydrogen detection method using gas sensor having a metal oxide layer

A gas sensor includes: a first conductive layer; a second conductive layer including a first region having a first thickness and a second region having a second thickness larger than the first thickness; a metal oxide layer disposed between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer, the metal oxide layer including a bulk region and a local region surrounded by the bulk region, a degree of oxygen deficiency of the local region being higher than that of the bulk region; and an insulation layer covering the first conductive layer, the second region of the second conductive layer, and the metal oxide layer and not covering the first region of the second conductive layer.

Gas sensor including metal oxide layer and hydrogen detection method using gas sensor

A gas-detecting apparatus includes a measurement circuit including a gas sensor and a measurement instrument and a decision circuit. Detection cells, included in the gas sensor, each include a first electrode, a second electrode having a surface exposed from an insulation layer, and a metal oxide layer disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The resistance values of the detection cells are each allowed to decrease by a contact of gas containing hydrogen atoms with the second electrode. The measurement instrument monitors the resistance values of the detection cells. The decision circuit decides whether the gas is detected or not based on at least one change of the resistance values.

Gas-detecting apparatus including gas sensor and method of detecting hydrogen using gas sensor

A gas sensor includes an insulation layer and detection cells covered with the insulation layer. Each of the plurality of detection cells includes: a first electrode; a second electrode having a surface exposed from the insulation layer; and a metal oxide layer disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. In each of the detection cells, a resistance value of the metal oxide layer decreases with a response time, which is different in each of the detection cells, when a gas containing a hydrogen atom comes into contact with the second electrodes.

Gas sensor including detection cells, and method for determining hydrogen concentration

A nonvolatile semiconductor memory element includes: a variable resistance element including a first electrode, a variable resistance layer, and a second electrode, and having a resistance value which changes according to a polarity of an electric pulse applied between the first electrode and the second electrode; and a current steering element which is electrically connected to the variable resistance element, allows a current to flow bidirectionally, and has a nonlinear current-voltage characteristic. The current steering element (i) has a structure in which a first current steering element electrode, a first current steering layer, and a second current steering element electrode are stacked in this order, and (ii) includes a second current steering layer which covers side surfaces of the first current steering element electrode, the first current steering layer, and the second current steering element electrode.

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory element, nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, and method for manufacturing nonvolatile semiconductor memory device

A nonvolatile memory element of the present invention comprises a first electrode (), a second electrode (), and a resistance variable layer () disposed between the first electrode () and the second electrode (), a resistance value of the resistance variable layer varying reversibly according to an electric signal applied between the electrodes (), (), and the resistance variable layer () comprises at least a tantalum oxide, and is configured to satisfy 0&#x3c;x&#x3c;2.5 when the tantalum oxide is represented by TaOx.

Nonvolatile memory element, nonvolatile memory apparatus, nonvolatile semiconductor apparatus, and method of manufacturing nonvolatile memory element

A method of manufacturing a non-volatile memory element includes forming a first electrode; forming a variable resistance layer; and forming a second electrode. Forming the variable resistance layer includes forming a third metal oxide layer having a third metal oxide, forming a second metal oxide layer having a second metal oxide, and forming a first metal oxide layer e having a first metal oxide; wherein the variable resistance layer reversibly changes its resistance value in response to an electric signal applied between the first electrode and the second electrode; the first metal oxide is lower in degree of oxygen deficiency than the third metal oxide; the second metal oxide is lower in degree of oxygen deficiency than the third metal oxide; the third metal oxide is an oxygen-deficient metal oxide; and the first metal oxide layer is different in density from the second metal oxide layer.

Manufacturing method of non-volatile memory element, non-volatile memory element, and non-volatile memory device

A variable resistance layer includes a first variable resistance layer comprising a first metal oxide that is oxygen deficient and a second variable resistance layer comprising a second metal oxide having a degree of oxygen deficiency that is different from that of the first metal oxide, wherein the second variable resistance layer includes a non-metal element A that is different from oxygen, x&#x3c;(y+z) is satisfied where a composition of the first variable resistance layer is represented by MOand a composition of the second variable resistance layer is represented by NOA, the second variable resistance layer has a higher resistivity than a resistivity of the first variable resistance layer, and a film density of the second variable resistance layer is lower than a theoretical film density of the second metal oxide which has a stoichiometric composition.

Nonvolatile memory device and method for manufacturing the same

Each of the step of forming a first variable resistance layer () and the step of forming a second variable resistance layer () includes performing a cycle once or plural times, the cycle consisting of a first step of introducing a source gas composed of molecules containing atoms of a transition metal; a second step of removing the source gas after the first step; a third step of introducing a reactive gas to form a transition metal oxide after the second step; and a fourth step of removing the reactive gas after the third step. The step of forming the first variable resistance layer () is performed in a state in which the substrate is kept at a temperature at which a self-decomposition reaction of the source gas does not occur. One or plural of conditions used for forming the second variable resistance layer () is/are made different from the one or plural conditions used for forming the first variable resistance layer (), the conditions being the temperature of the substrate, an amount of the introduced source gas and an amount of the introduced reactive gas.

Manufacturing method of non-volatile memory device

A nonvolatile memory element includes a first and a second electrode layers, and a variable resistance layer provided between the first and the second electrode layers and having a resistance value reversibly changing according to application of an electrical pulse, wherein the variable resistance layer includes a first variable resistance layer contacting the first electrode layer and comprising an oxygen-deficient first metal oxide, and a second variable resistance layer contacting the first variable resistance layer and comprising a second metal oxide having a smaller oxygen deficiency than the first metal oxide, and including host layers and an inserted layer between each of adjacent pairs of the host layers, wherein the second metal oxide of the inserted layer has a larger oxygen deficiency than the second metal oxide of the host layer, and the first metal oxide has a larger oxygen deficiency than the second metal oxide of the host layer.

Nonvolatile memory element and method for manufacturing the same

Provided is a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device including a variable resistance element in which a parasitic resistance between the lower electrode and the variable resistance layer included in the variable resistance element is reduced. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes: a substrate; and a variable resistance elementformed on the substrate, wherein the variable resistance elementincludes a lower electrode layer formed on the substrate, a variable resistance layer formed on the lower electrode layer, and an upper electrode layer formed on the variable resistance layer, the lower electrode layer includes at least a first conductive layer and a second conductive layer which is formed on the first conductive layer and is in contact with the variable resistance layer, and the first conductive layer includes an oxidatively degraded layer which is formed on an upper surface of the first conductive layer due to oxidization of the first conductive layer.

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and method of manufacturing the same

A variable resistance nonvolatile storage device which includes (i) a semiconductor substrate, (ii) a variable resistance element having: lower and upper electrodes; and a variable resistance layer whose resistance value reversibly varies based on voltage signals each of which has a different polarity and is applied between the electrodes, and (iii) a MOS transistor formed on the substrate, wherein the variable resistance layer includes: oxygen-deficient transition metal oxide layers having compositions MOand MO(where x&#x3c;y) and in contact with the electrodes respectively, a diffusion layer region is connected with the lower electrode to form a memory cell, the region serving as a drain upon application of a voltage signal which causes a resistance change to high resistance state in the variable resistance layer.

Variable resistance nonvolatile storage device and method of forming memory cell

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Osaka, Japan

Satoru Fujii