Intellectual Property Law

US Patent 7781862 - Nanotube RRAM

Nantero's original concept of non-volatile memory involved electromechanical switches formed from nanotube ribbons. This patent teaches an alternative variation of non-volatile memory formed from immobile nanotube fabrics sandwiched between electrodes which act as programmable fuses or anti-fuses. Claim 1 reads:

1. A two terminal switching device, comprising:

a first conductive terminal;

a second conductive terminal in spaced relation to the first conductive terminal;

a nanotube article having a plurality of nanotubes, said nanotube article being arranged such that the nanotube article is in permanent and direct physical contact with both the first and second conductive terminals; and

stimulus circuitry in electrical communication with at least one of the first and second conductive terminals, said stimulus circuitry configured to create a first voltage difference between the first conductive terminal and the second conductive terminal, to induce a change in the resistance of the nanotube article between the first and second conductive terminals from a relatively low resistance to a relatively high resistance, said stimulus circuitry configured to create a second voltage difference between the first conductive terminal and the second conductive terminal, to induce a change in the resistance of the nanotube article between the first and second conductive terminals from a relatively high resistance to a relatively low resistance, wherein the relatively high resistance of the nanotube article between the first and second conductive terminals corresponds to a first state of the two terminal switching device, and wherein the relatively low resistance of the nanotube article between the first and second conductive terminals corresponds to a second state of the two terminal switching device, wherein the first and second states of the two terminal switching device are nonvolatile.

Full post as published by TinytechIP on August 30, 2010 (boomark / email).