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:
Jun. 10, 2003
Filed:
Nov. 07, 2000
Richard Cosmo Adamo, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Victor Manuel Aguero, Menlo Park, CA (US);
SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Abstract
A sensor and method for measuring an electrical potential difference are described. The sensor includes a micro-fabricated field emission device situated in a space plasma environment. The field emission device has an emitter terminal and a gate terminal. A voltage source applies a voltage across the gate and the emitter terminals to induce current to flow from the emitter terminal A first current monitor measures current flowing from the emitter in response to the applied voltage. A second current monitor measures current flowing to the gate. A control system correlates applied voltages and measured gate and emitter currents with electrical potential differences between the field emission device and the space plasma environment. The control system obtains the gate and emitter currents from the current monitors. A processor computes a value from the gate and emitter current measurements based on a predetermined functional relationship.