Patent ID: 8395928

Claim:
A re-writeable non-volatile memory device, comprising: a two-terminal memory cell including a first terminal, a second terminal, and electrically in series with the first and second terminals a threshold device including a plurality of tunnel barrier layers that are in contact with one another, each tunnel barrier layer is made from a dielectric material having a thickness configured for electron tunneling only when voltages for data operations are applied across the first and second terminals of the memory cell, one of the plurality of tunnel barrier layers is in contact with a first electrode that is electrically coupled with the first terminal, and another one of the plurality of tunnel barrier layers is in contact with a second electrode, a two-terminal re-writeable non-volatile memory element including a conductive metal oxide (CMO) layer that includes mobile oxygen ions, and an electrolytic tunnel barrier in contact with the CMO layer and made from a material that is an ionic conductor permeable to the mobile oxygen ions during write operations to the memory cell and is an electronic insulator configured for electron tunneling during the data operations, the electrolytic tunnel barrier having a thickness of less than 50 Angstroms, the memory element is in contact with a third electrode and electrically coupled with the second electrode, the memory element configured to store at least one-bit of non-volatile data as a plurality of conductivity profiles that are retained in the absence of electrical power, are non-destructively read by applying a read voltage across the first and second terminals, and are reversibly written by applying a write voltage across the first and second terminals, and the memory element including a non-linear I-V characteristic for all values of the plurality of conductivity profiles.