Patent 7372718 was granted and assigned to Sony on May, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A storage device includes a storage element having characteristics such that the resistance value thereof changes from a high state to a low state as a result of an electrical signal higher than or equal to a first threshold signal being applied and changes from a low state to a high state as a result of an electrical signal higher than or equal to a second threshold signal whose polarity differs from that of the first threshold signal being applied; and a circuit element that is connected in series to the storage element and that serves as a load, the storage element and the circuit element forming a memory cell, and the memory cells being arranged in a matrix, wherein the resistance value of the circuit element when the storage element is read differs from the resistance value when the storage element is written or erased.