Hybrid ferromagnet-semiconductor device for memory and logic

Magnetoelectronics is a new field that is devoted to the invention and development of electronic device structures that incorporate a ferromagnetic element. The bistable magnetization states of a thin ferromagnetic film can be adapted for integrated digital applications if each magnetization state corresponds, by some appropriate mechanism, to a voltage level. The property of nonvolatility is intrinsic to the magnetization bistability, and a natural functional application of magnetoelectronic devices is memory. More generally, the linearity of inductively coupled “write” currents used to set the magnetic state permit Boolean operations, and magnetoelectronic devices can be thought of as “latching Boolean gates” with applications for both memory and logic