Patent ID: 7359238

Claim:
A semiconductor nonvolatile storage circuit including first and second MISFETs, source terminals of the first and second MISFETs connecting to a ground potential, gate terminals of the first and second MISFETs connecting to a first word line, a drain terminal of the first MISFET connecting to a bit line, and a drain terminal of the second MISFET connecting to a differential pair line of the bit line, the semiconductor nonvolatile storage circuit comprising: a first switching element to electrically open/close a path between the drain terminal of the first MISFET and the bit line; a second switching element to electrically open/close a path between the drain terminal of the second MISFET and the differential pair line and wherein a conduction resistance value of the first or second MISFET is changed so that conduction resistance values of the first and second MISFETs differ from each other by applying an intermediate voltage between a power supply potential and a ground potential to the first word line and by applying the power supply potential to any one of the bit line and the differential pair line of the bit line, whereby “1” or “0” is stored in accordance with the difference between the conduction resistance values.