Patent ID: 8125823

Claim:
A memory apparatus, comprising a ferroelectric storage medium comprising a metallic underlayer, a ferroelectric data layer over said metallic underlayer, and a conducting layer over said ferroelectric layer; a support mechanism to support and move said ferroelectric storage medium; and an electrometric read/write head for accessing said ferroelectric storage medium, for at least one of writing information to said ferroelectric storage medium and reading information from said ferroelectric storage medium, wherein: said ferroelectric data layer serves as a layer for storing information as bits defined by a sign of polarization of domains within said ferroelectric data layer, each polarized domain comprising a volume dipole polarization within said ferroelectric data layer and including an area of bound charge on and adjacent to a surface of said ferroelectric data layer, and said conducting layer has a charge migration rate faster than a charge migration rate of said ferroelectric data layer, thereby providing a charge dissipation of mobile surface charges on said ferroelectric data layer surface while still permitting said polarized domains to be read.