Patent ID: 8710482

Claim:
A memory component comprising: a first electrode; a second electrode; and a memory layer between the first and second electrodes, wherein: the memory layer includes (a) on a first electrode side thereof, a resistance change layer that is composed of a plurality of layers, at least one of the plurality of layers including tellurium (Te) as the chief component among anion components, and (b) on a second electrode side thereof, an ion source layer with at least one kind of metal element and at least one kind of chalcogen element selected from the group consisting of tellurium (Te), sulfur (S) and selenium (Se), the memory component is configured such that an ionized metal element from the ion source layer is diffused into the resistance change layer to change a resistance of the resistance change layer from a high resistance state to a low resistance state, and a first one of the plurality of layers of the resistance change layer has an Al—Te compound, an Mg—Te compound, or a Zn—Te compound as a main component, and a second one of the plurality of layers of the resistance change layer has oxygen (O) or nitrogen (N) as a main component.