METHOD FOR CAPACITIVELY READING RESISTIVE MEMORY ELEMENTS AND NONVOLATILE, CAPACITIVELY READABLE MEMORY ELEMENTS FOR IMPLEMENTING THE METHOD

摘要

Within the scope of the invention, a method for reading a nonvolatile memory element having at least two stable states 0 and 1 has been developed. Said memory element comprises at least one resistive memory cell, which encodes the two states 0 and 1 to give a state HRS with a relatively high electrical resistance and a state LRS with a relatively low electrical resistance. The memory element has different capacitances C0.1 in the two states 0 and 1; this difference is used to determine which state is present. In accordance with the invention, a memory element is selected in which a fixed capacitance, which is independent of the state of the memory cell, is connected in series with the memory cell. It has been identified that a series circuit comprising a resistive memory cell and a fixed capacitance instead of a second resistive memory cell improves the signal strength during capacitive reading. It has also been identified that the second memory cell is not required for the memory function when the memory element is read capacitively. Within the scope of the invention, in addition memory elements have been developed which combine a field-effect transistor or a DRAM structure with a resistive memory cell or an antiseries series circuit of such memory cells. Such memory elements are particularly suitable for implementing the method according to the invention.