Patent ID: 8115188

Claim:
A memory element, comprising a parallel combination of a thin film transistor; and a resistance change element, said thin film transistor including a semiconductor thin film in which a channel region, and an input terminal and an output terminal located on both sides of said channel region, respectively, are formed, and a gate electrode overlapping the channel region through an insulating film to become a control terminal, said resistance change element including one conductive layer connected to the input terminal side of said thin film transistor, the other conductive layer connected to the output terminal side of said thin film transistor, and at least one oxide film layer disposed between said one conductive layer and the other conductive layer, wherein when said thin film transistor is in an OFF state in accordance with a voltage applied to said control terminal of said thin film transistor, said resistance change element changes between a low resistance state and a high resistance state in accordance with a voltage applied thereto from said input terminal of said thin film transistor, thereby writing corresponding binary data to said resistance change element, and wherein said thin film transistor and said resistance change element are connected to each other through a wiring in the same layer as that of said gate electrode.