Patent ID: 7990751

Claim:
A drive method of a nanogap switching element, the nanogap switching element including an insulation substrate, first and second electrodes formed on the insulation substrate, and an inter-electrode gap portion formed between the first and second electrodes and including a gap of a nanometer order between them for causing a switching phenomenon of a resistance of the inter-electrode gap portion by applying a predetermined voltage between the first and second electrodes thereto, wherein a voltage pulse of a first voltage value is applied to the nanogap switching element in order to be shifted from a predetermined low resistance state to a predetermined high resistance state and a voltage pulse of a second voltage value lower than the first voltage value is applied to the nanogap switching element in order to be shifted from the high resistance state to the low resistance state, the method comprising the step of: applying a voltage pulse of an intermediate voltage value between the first voltage value and the second voltage value to the nanogap switching element before applying the voltage pulse of the second voltage value thereto at the time of shifting the nanogap switching element from the high resistance state to the low resistance state.