# US 12,191,858 B2 · Thermal-electric logic integrated circuit and use of said integrated circuit > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,191,858 B2 - Document ID: US12191858B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 18/013,600 - Filed: 2021-06-03 - Published: 2023-08-10 - Granted: 2025-01-07 - Earliest claimed: 2020-06-29 - Applicants: Budapesti Muszaki Es Gazdasagtudomanyi Egyetem - Inventors: Janos Mizsei; Jyrki Lappalainen - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12191858B2 ## CPC - H03K 19/23: Majority or minority circuits, i.e. giving output having the state of the majority or the minority of the inputs - H03K 19/02: using specified components ({H03K19/0005 - H03K19/0021}, H03K19/003 - H03K19/0175 take precedence) - H03K: PULSE TECHNIQUE (measuring pulse characteristics G01R; modulating sinusoidal oscillations with pulses H03C; transmission of digital information H04L; discriminator circuits detecting phase difference between two signals by counting or integrating cycles of oscillation H03D3/04; automatic control, starting, synchronisation or stabilisation of generators of electronic oscillations or pulses where the type of generator is irrelevant or unspecified H03L; coding, decoding or code conversion, in general H03M) ## Abstract The invention is based on the integrated application of a thermal-electric active device (phonon transistor). Phonon transistors consist of resistors that respond to temperature changes with a metal-insulator phase transition, or possibly other resistors suitable for heat generation. These resistors are thermally and electrically coupled to each other as needed, and are thermally and electrically insulated from each other. The thermal-electric system built in this way is suitable for the implementation of high-integration logic networks. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A thermal-electric integrated logic circuit, comprising: at least two inputs (InA-InH,, In/Outth1, In/Outth2, In/Outth3), at least one output (Out, In/Outth1, In/Outth2, In/Outth3), a series member consisting of a resistor (R0) and a metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) used as a vanadium oxide (VO2) switching element connected to a supply voltage (UCC), and where the at least one output (Out) is made up by the common point of the resistor (R0) of the series member and the metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) used as the VO2 switching element, and where the at least two inputs (InA-InH, In/Outth1, In/Outth2, In/Outth3) comprise at least one electric input (InA-InH) and at least one thermal input (In/Outth2, In/Outth3), whereas in case of a NOR logic gate circuit, at least one input resistor (R1-R6) constituting a thermal input of the NOR logic gate circuit is arranged closer to the metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) used as the VO2 switching element of the NOR logic gate circuit than a thermal diffusion length (Lth), in case of a NAND logic gate circuit, the at least one input resistor (R1-R6) constituting a thermal input of the NAND logic gate circuit is arranged farther from the metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) used as the VO2 switching element of the NAND logic gate circuit than a thermal diffusion length (Lth), in case of a majority logic gate circuit, all of the excited input resistors (R1-R6) are arranged at an identical distance corresponding to the thermal diffusion length (Lth) from the metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) of the majority logic gate circuit used as the VO2 switching element; in case of an extended majority logic gate circuit, all of the excited input resistors (R1-R6) are arranged at an identical distance, less than the thermal diffusion length (Lth) or greater than the thermal diffusion length (Lth), from the metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) used as the VO2 switching element; further providing a weighted majority logic gate circuit, at least one excitation input resistor is arranged at a distance smaller than the thermal diffusion length (Lth) from the metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) of the weighted majority logic gate circuit used as the VO2 switching element, and at least two excitation input resistors are arranged at a distance greater than the thermal diffusion length (Lth) from the metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) used as the VO2 switching element. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The thermal-electric logic integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein an input of a switching stage connected in parallel with a series member consisting of a resistor (R0) and a metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) used as a VO2 switching element connected to the output of a function generator is connected to an output formed by a common point of the resistor (R0) and the metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) of the series member, and the switching stage is arranged being in thermal feedback with the metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) used as the VO2 switching element. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The thermal-electric logic integrated circuit according to claim 2, wherein the function generator is formed by a series RC member comprising a capacitor (C) connected to the supply voltage (UCC) via a further resistor (R9) and a resistor (R10), where the output of the function generator is formed by the common point of the further resistor (R9) and the capacitor (C). ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The thermal-electric logic integrated circuit according to claim 3, is used in a multimode oscillator circuit. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The thermal-electric logic integrated circuit according to claim 2, is used in a multimode oscillator circuit. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The thermal-electric logic integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein the at least one output of each thermal-electric logic integrated circuit is connected through a respective diode (D1) to a corresponding respective word line (WL) connected to a respective output of a row decoder (RD) connected to respective row address (RA) of a matrix (M) implementing a grassfire algorithm, and the output of the ground terminal (GND) of the metal-insulator transition capable resistor (RMIT) used as the VO2 switching element of each thermal-electric logic integrated circuit is connected through a respective diode (D2) to a corresponding bit line (BL) connected to a respective output of a column decoder/multiplexer (CD) connected to respective column address (CA) of the matrix (M). ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The thermal-electric logic integrated circuit according to claim 6, is used in a matrix (M) implementing a grassfire algorithm. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The thermal-electric logic integrated circuit according to claim 1, is used in a multimode oscillator circuit.