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:
Jun. 29, 2004
Filed:
Aug. 19, 2002
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Renesas Technology Corp., Tokyo, JP;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/114 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/114 ;
Abstract
A tunneling magneto-resistance element of each MTJ (magnetic tunnel junction) memory cell is connected between a bit line and a strap. Each strap is shared by a plurality of tunneling magneto-resistance elements that are located adjacent to each other in the row direction in the same sub array. Each access transistor is connected between a corresponding strap and a ground voltage, and turned ON/OFF in response to a corresponding word line. Since data read operation can be conducted with the structure that does not have an access transistor for every tunneling magneto-resistance element, the array area can be reduced.