The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 06, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 01, 1999
Hidemi Takasu, Kyoto, JP;
Rohm Co., Ltd., Kyoto, JP;
Abstract
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sequential circuit having nonvolatile characteristics capable of holding data therein even when the power supply is shut-off. An inverter circuit INV,is formed by replacing a pair of transistors consisting the conventional CMOS inverters with transistors NT and PT both having an MFMIS structure. A polarization state corresponding to an ON state is held in a ferroelectric layer,of the transistor NT even when the power supply thereof is shut off, and another polarization state corresponding to an OFF state is held in a ferroelectric layer,of the transistor PT. The transistors NT and PT are turned into ON and OFF state respectively according to the polarization states held in their ferroelectric layers,when the power supply is turned ON again. In this way, the inverter circuit INV,recovers its state to the state right before the shut-off by turning the power supply into the ON state again.