Intellectual Property Law

US Patent 7539119 - Memristor probe tip memory

Millipede memory has been under development by IBM and others based on the use of large arrays of cantilevered tips which write data by a thermal heating of polymer. This patent from Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute modifies the millipede concept by using metal oxide materials having the resistance switching properties characteristic of memristors. Claim 1 reads:

1. A data storage apparatus comprising:

a substrate;

a lower electrode layer disposed on the substrate;

a metal oxide layer disposed on the lower electrode layer;

a probe tip disposed on the metal oxide layer opposite the lower electrode layer and for scanning a local region of the metal oxide layer in units of nanometer, wherein the probe tip applies a write voltage to the local region of the metal oxide layer so that the resistance of the local region is sharply changed until a resistive state of the local region is switched from a first state to a second state or measures current flowing through the local region according to the resistive state and reads data stored in the local region;

a driver for transferring the position of the probe tip to the local region of the metal oxide layer; and a controller for controlling the probe tip and the driver, wherein the driver includes: a substrate driver for transferring the substrate in at least units of nanometer; and

a probe tip driver for driving the probe tip.

Full post as published by TinytechIP on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).