The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 30, 1982
Filed:
Dec. 26, 1979
Paul L Fleming, Rockville, MD (US);
Thane Smith, Middletown, MD (US);
Communications Satellite Corporation, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
The planar transmission line attenuator and switch is formed on a flat piece of semiconductor material. Transmission line metallic conductors are deposited on a flat surface of the semiconductor material, and at least one of the metallic conductors forms a Schottky barrier contact to this flat semiconductor surface. The gap between the metallic conductors defines a shunt current path through the semiconductor material. The semiconductor material at the surface in contact with the transmission line conductor must be conductive. By applying a bias voltage to the metallic conductor forming the Schottky barrier contact, the conductivity of the shunt path can be controlled by changing the depletion layer width across the Schottky barrier. A plurality of planar transmission line switches can be combined into multi-port networks, examples of which are cross-bar switching devices and .beta. element switching devices.