Patent ID: 8093682

Claim:
A resistance memory element comprising: an elementary body; and at least one pair of electrodes separated by at least a portion of the elementary body, wherein the at least one pair of electrodes are arranged such that when a switching voltage is applied in a first direction between the at least one pair of electrodes, the portion of the elementary body disposed between the pair of electrodes attains a low resistance state, and the low resistance state is maintained even after the switching voltage in the first direction is removed, and when a switching voltage is applied in a second direction opposite to the first direction between the at least one pair of electrodes, the portion of the elementary body disposed between the pair of electrodes attains a high resistance state, and the high resistance state is maintained even after the switching voltage in the second direction is removed, and wherein the elementary body is made of a semiconductor ceramic expressed by a formula {(Sr 1-x M x ) 1-y A y }(T 1-z B z )O 3 , wherein M represents at least one of Ba and Ca, A represents at least one element selected from the group consisting of Y and rare earth elements, and B represents at least one of Nb and Ta, and satisfies: when 0<x≦0.5, 0.001≦y+z≦0.02 (where 0≦y≦0.02 and 0≦z≦0.02); when 0.5<x≦0.8, 0.003≦y+z≦0.02 (where 0≦y≦0.02 and 0≦z≦0.02); and when 0.8<x≦1.0, 0.005≦y+z≦0.01 (where 0≦y≦0.02 and 0≦z≦0.02).