STORAGE DEVICE AND WRITING CONTROL METHOD

• US 20120155158A1
• Filed: 11/29/2011
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Higo, Yutaka, Hosomi, Masanori, Ohmori, Hiroyuki, Bessho, Kazuhiro, Yamane, Kazutaka, Uchida, Hiroyuki, Asayama, Tetsuya
• Application Number:
  US13/306,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20120155158A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 365/158
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/161 details concerning the memory cell structure, e.g. the layers of the ferromagnetic memory cell
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/1675 Writing or programming circuits or methods
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/1677 Verifying circuits or methods
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 19/00 Digital stores in which the information is moved stepwise, e.g. shift registers

Abstract

A storage device is provided with a plurality of pairs of memory blocks, which have a storage layer which stores information and is configured to have a plurality of storage elements which store the information in the storage layer by the orientation of the magnetization of the storage layer being changed in accordance with the application of a writing voltage and so that selective application of the writing voltage is possible in accordance with input information to one storage element, and writing control sections, which store information which is to be written into each of the storage elements in a shift register, output one piece of information from the shift register, determine whether or not writing of the output information succeeds, and when writing has failed, the same information is output again, and when writing is successful, the next piece of information is output from the shift register.

Claims

1. A storage device, comprising a plurality of pairs of memory blocks and writing control sections,

wherein the memory block has a storage layer which stores information using the magnetization state of a magnetic material and a fixed magnetization layer where orientation of magnetization is fixed via a non-magnetized layer with regard to the storage layer and is configured so as to have a plurality of storage elements which store the information in the storage layer by the orientation of the magnetization of the storage layer being changed in accordance with the application of a writing voltage for flowing a writing current in a laminate direction of the storage layer and the fixed magnetization layer and so that selective application of the writing voltage is possible in accordance with input information to one storage element out of the plurality of storage elements, and

the writing control section stores information which is to be written into each of the storage elements of the memory blocks in a shift register, outputs one piece of information from the shift register to the memory block, determines whether or not writing of the output information succeeds, and in a case where it is determined that writing has failed, the same information is output again with regard to the memory block, and in a case where it is determined that writing is successful, an address value for selecting the storage element which is in a writing possible state in the memory block is increased and the next piece of information is output from the shift register to the memory block.

2. The storage device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a transfer control section which individually applies information which is to be written into each of the storage elements in the memory blocks which form a pair with regard to the individual writing control sections; and

an address control section which indicates the head address of the writing with regard to the individual writing control sections when starting writing.

3. A writing control method of a storage device including a plurality of memory blocks, which has a storage layer which stores information using the magnetization state of a magnetic material and a fixed magnetization layer where orientation of magnetization is fixed via a non-magnetized layer with regard to the storage layer and is configured so as to have a plurality of storage elements which store the information in the storage layer by the orientation of the magnetization of the storage layer being changed in accordance with the application of a writing voltage for flowing a writing current in a laminate direction of the storage layer and the fixed magnetization layer and so that selective application of the writing voltage is possible in accordance with input information to one storage element out of the plurality of storage elements, comprising:

storing information which is to be written into each of the storage elements of the memory blocks in a shift register;

outputting one piece of information from the shift register to the memory block;

determining whether or not writing of the output information succeeds, and

outputting the same information again with regard to the memory block in a case where it is determined that writing has failed, and increasing an address value for selecting the storage element which is in a writing possible state in the memory block and outputting the next piece of information from the shift register to the memory block in a case where it is determined that writing is successful.