Patent ID: 8295083

Claim:
A method of writing to a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) of a magnetic memory array, the MTJ being coupled to an access transistor for reading of and writing to the MTJ, the MTJ being written to by switching its magnetic orientation from an anti-parallel to a parallel magnetic orientation, the method comprising: raising a bit line coupled to one end of a MTJ, to be programmed, to Vcc; applying a voltage that is the sum of Vcc and Vx to the gate of an access transistor coupled to one end of the MTJ, Vx being approximately the voltage at an opposite end of the MTJ; and regulating the voltage of a Source Line (SL) coupled to the MTJ using a first transistor coupled to SL such that SL remains sufficiently above 0 volts to avoid violation of Vgs exceeding Vcc, wherein Vgs is the gate to source voltage of the access transistor.