Ramtron Granted Patent

U.S. semiconductor maker Ramtron International Corporation announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,672,151 entitled Method for Reading Non-volatile Ferroelectric Capacitor Memory Cell. The patent materially expands Ramtron’s intellectual property portfolio.

"We are very pleased to have secured 17-years of fundamental protection for our one-transistor/one-capacitor (1T/1C) F-RAM memory cell," said Bill Staunton, Ramtron’s CEO. "We are currently evaluating what impact this recent expansion of our intellectual property portfolio will have on others that are using devices that may infringe on the claims in this patent."

The new patent covers methods of reading and restoring a 1T/1C F-RAM memory cell. The patent claims fundamental technology for the basic reading and restoring of a 1T/1C F-RAM memory cell including a word line, bit line, a drive line, an access transistor and a ferroelectric capacitor having two different polarization states.