Back to results
US 12,696,492 B2Granted
Solid-state device with optical waveguide as floating gate electrode
AssigneeORCA Computing Limited
InventorsBrian Mattis, Ke Liu, Taran Huffman, Bryan Woo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A semiconductor device includes a floating gate that can be charged in a nonvolatile manner. The floating gate is also structured as an optical waveguide, and maybe optically coupled to a photonic circuit, such as an interferometer.
Claims19
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a source electrode;
- a control electrode;
- an insulator layer;
- and
- a floating gate separated from the source electrode and the control electrode by the insulator layer, the floating gate optically coupled to and electrically isolated from a photonic circuit and configured to operate as a waveguide of the photonic circuit, the floating gate operable to accumulate electrical charge across the insulator layer via quantum tunneling.
2 more elements
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a conductive element;
- a layered dielectric disposed below the conductive element, the layered dielectric comprising:
- a first silicon oxide layer formed to interface the conductive element;
- a silicon nitride layer formed to interface the first silicon oxide layer;
- and
- a second silicon oxide layer formed to interface the silicon nitride layer;
- a silicon waveguide formed to interface the second silicon oxide layer of the layered dielectric, the silicon waveguide:
- optically coupled to a photonic circuit;
- and
- conductively decoupled from the conductive element, thereby operating as a floating gate;
- wherein:
- in response to a voltage applied to the conductive element, the silicon waveguide accumulates charge by quantum tunneling, the accumulated charge effecting a change in a refractive index of the silicon waveguide.
9 more elements
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprising:
- an array of memory cells, each memory cell comprising:
- a source gate;
- a control gate;
- an optical input;
- an optical output;
- a first waveguide defining a first optical path optically coupling the optical input to the optical output;
- and
- a second waveguide defining a second optical path optically coupling the optical input to the optical output, the second waveguide conductively decoupled from the source gate and the control gate, and configured to accumulate and retain, via quantum tunneling, electrical charge supplied by the source gate in response to a voltage applied to the control gate such that the second optical path exhibits a different index of refraction from the first optical path.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.