Patent ID: 7315468

Claim:
A thin film magnetic memory device, comprising: a plurality of memory cells for magnetic data storage, said plurality of memory cells being arranged in a matrix; a plurality of first write lines provided corresponding to one of memory cell rows and memory cell columns, for selectively receiving a data write current in order to mainly apply a magnetic field of an easy-axis direction to a selected memory cell; a plurality of second write lines provided corresponding to the other of said memory cell rows and said memory cell columns, for selectively receiving a data write current in order to mainly apply a magnetic field of a hard-axis direction to the selected memory cell; and a plurality of wirings formed from an electrically conductive material, wherein a residual magnetic field margin along said easy-axis direction and a residual magnetic field margin along said hard-axis direction have different values when said memory cell is subjected to both a magnetic field noise generated from a nearest one of said first write lines other than the corresponding first write line and a magnetic field noise generated from a nearest one of said second write lines other than the corresponding second write line, and one of said plurality of wirings that is located nearest to said memory cells extends in such a direction that a magnetic field generated by a current flowing therethrough mainly has in said memory cells a component along either said easy-axis direction or said hard-axis direction which corresponds to a greater residual magnetic field margin.