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:
Apr. 08, 1986
Filed:
Jul. 02, 1984
Mark A Reed, Dallas, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
Quantum-coupled devices, wherein at least two closely adjacent potential wells, (e.g. islands of GaAs in an AlGaAs lattice) are made small enough that the energy levels of carriers within the wells are discretely quantized. This means that, when the bias between the wells is adjusted to align energy levels of the two wells, tunneling will occur very rapidly, whereas when energy levels are not aligned, tunneling will be greatly reduced. To provide output coupling from these quantum-well devices to macroscopic currents, the output from the quantum-well devices is injected into localized states close to an extremely small metal line (e.g. 200 Angstroms square in section). These trapped charged perturb the resistance of a metal line significantly, so that a conventional sense amplifier can be used for differential sensing between two such narrow metal lines, to provide macroscopic outputs.