Patent ID: 7778062

Claim:
A resistance change memory device comprising: a semiconductor substrate; at least one cell array, in which memory cells are arranged, formed above the semiconductor substrate, each the memory cell having a stack structure of a variable resistance element and an access element, the variable resistance element storing a high resistance state or a low resistance state in a non-volatile manner, the access element having such an off-state resistance value in a certain voltage range that is ten times or more as high as that in a select state; and a read/write circuit formed on the semiconductor substrate as underlying the cell array for data reading and data writing in communication with the cell array, wherein the variable resistance element comprises a recording layer composed of a composite compound containing at least two types of cation elements, at least one type of the cation element being a transition element having “d”-orbit, in which electrons are incompletely filled, the shortest distance between adjacent cation elements being 0.32 nm or less, wherein the recording layer is composed of one composite compound expressed by A x M y O z which is maintained in a certain crystal structure at both of the high resistance state and the low resistance state (where A and M are elements different from each other and said crystal structure is satisfied by selecting molar ratios fro “X” and “Y” to satisfy 0.1≦X≦2.2 and 0.9≦Y≦2..0, respectively) and selected from the group consisting of: a spinel type transition metal oxide; a delafossite type transition metal oxide; an ilmenite type transition metal oxide; a wolframite type transition metal oxide; a hollandite type transition metal oxide; a heterolite type transition metal oxide; a ramsdelite type transition metal oxide; and a olivine type transition oxide.