HYBRID HALL EFFECT DEVICE AND METHOD OF OPERATION

A modified Hall Effect device can be used as a memory element for the nonvolatile storage of digital information. The novel device includes a ferromagnetic layer that covers a portion of a Hall plate and is electrically isolated from the Hall plate. The ferromagnetic layer on the Hall plate can be changed by an externally applied field, and permits the device to have two stable magnetization states (positive and negative) along an anisotropy axis, which can correspond to two different data values (0 or 1) when the device is used as a memory element. In another embodiment of the invention, the Hall plate is integrated with a conduction channel of a FET, and the ferromagnetic layer is incorporated in proximity to, or as part of the gate over the conducting channel. This device can be described as a "ferromagnetic gated FET." The resulting device also can be fabricated to be magnetically anisotropic so as to permit the device to have two stable magnetization states (positive and negative along the anisotropy axis) which again can correspond to two different data values (0 or 1) when the device is used as a memory element. Both of the above devices can be used as magnetic field sensors, (e.g. as a read head) or in memory arrays where they can operate as non-volatile memory. The modified Hall Plate and ferromagnetic gated FET devices can also be used a logic gate that stores the result of a boolean function. A magnetic field generated by the combined current of one or more input data signals is coupled to the device. Depending on the particular function to be implemented, the magnetization of the ferromagnetic layer can be configured to change or retain its orientation based on particular predefined combinations of input data signals.