Patent ID: 8199555

Claim:
A method of operating a non-volatile logic circuit, comprising steps of: a step (a) of preparing the non-volatile logic circuit, the non-volatile logic circuit comprising: a control electrode; a ferroelectric layer; a semiconductor layer, and an electrode group, wherein: the control electrode, the ferroelectric layer, the semiconductor layer, and the electrode group are stacked in this order, the electrode group comprises an electric current source electrode, an output electrode, a first input electrode, a second input electrode, a third input electrode, and a fourth input electrode, an X-direction, a Y-direction, and a Z-direction denote a longitudinal direction of the ferroelectric layer, a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction, and a lamination direction, respectively, the first input electrode, the second input electrode, the third input electrode, and the fourth input electrode are interposed between the electric current source electrode and the output electrode, the first input electrode is interposed between the electric current source electrode and the third input electrode along the X-direction, the third input electrode is interposed between the first input electrode and the output electrode along the X-direction, the second input electrode is interposed between the electric current source electrode and the fourth input electrode along the X-direction, the fourth input electrode is interposed between the second input electrode and the output electrode along the X-direction, the first input electrode is adjacent to the second input electrode along the Y-direction, and the third input electrode is adjacent to the fourth input electrode along the Y-direction; a step (b) of writing one state selected from the group consisting of first, second, third, and fourth states into the non-volatile logic circuit, wherein: V1, Va, Vb, Vc, and Vd are voltages applied to the control electrode, the first input electrode, the second input electrode, the third input electrode, and the fourth input electrode, respectively, when the first state is written, voltages, which satisfy the following relationship (I), are applied, V1>Va, V1>Vb, V1<Vc, and V1<Vd (I), when the second state is written, voltages, which satisfy the following relationship (II), are applied, V1<Va, V1>Vb, V1<Vc, and V1>Vd (II), when the third state is written, voltages, which satisfy the following relationship (III), are applied, V1>Va, V1<Vb, V1>Vc, and V1<Vd (III), when the fourth state is written, voltages, which satisfy the following relationship (IV), are applied, V1<Va, V1<Vb, V1>Vc, and V1>Vd (IV), the first and fourth states are high resistant states, and the second and third states are low resistant states; and a step (c) of measuring a current generated by applying a voltage between the source electrode and the output electrode to determine whether the state written in the non-volatile logic circuit is the high or low resistant state on the basis of the current.