US 12,764,976 B2Granted

Phase change material microelectromechanical systems based analog memory and computational device

AssigneeHoneywell Aerospace US LLC

InventorVed Gund

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Abstract

A computational device includes a phase-change material (PCM) variable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitor and a power source. The PCM variable MEMS capacitor includes a substrate, a first electrode, a second electrode, a PCM, and a heater. The first electrode is spaced apart from the substrate to define a PCM cavity. The second electrode is spaced apart from the first electrode to define a capacitance gap. The PCM is disposed within the PCM cavity. The heater element is coupled to receive a voltage pulse, whereby a temperature of the PCM varies to thereby vary the capacitance gap. The power source is coupled to the PCM variable MEMS capacitor and is operable to (i) supply the voltage pulse to the heater and (ii) a time-dependent voltage between the first electrode and the second electrode, to thereby implement a single multiply operation.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A computational device, comprising:

a phase-change material (PCM) variable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitor, the PCM variable MEMS capacitor comprising:
(i) a substrate;
(ii) a first electrode coupled to the substrate and having a first electrode inner surface and a first electrode outer surface, the first electrode inner surface spaced apart from the substrate to define a PCM cavity between the first electrode inner surface and the substrate;
(iii) a second electrode coupled to the substrate and having a second electrode inner surface and a second electrode outer surface, the second electrode inner surface spaced apart from the first electrode outer surface to define a capacitance gap between the first and second electrodes;
(iv) a PCM disposed within the PCM cavity;
and
(v) a heater element disposed within the PCM cavity and coupled to receive a voltage pulse, whereby a temperature of the PCM varies to thereby vary the capacitance gap;
and
a power source coupled to the PCM variable MEMS capacitor and operable to (i) supply the voltage pulse to the heater element and (ii) a time-dependent voltage between the first electrode and the second electrode, to thereby implement a single multiply operation.

6 more elements

A computational device, comprising:

a plurality of phase-change material (PCM) variable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitors, the PCM variable MEMS capacitors electrically connected in a cross-bar array configuration, each PCM variable MEMS capacitors comprising:
(i) a substrate;
(ii) a first electrode coupled to the substrate and having a first electrode inner surface and a first electrode outer surface, the first electrode inner surface spaced apart from the substrate to define a PCM cavity between the first electrode inner surface and the substrate;
(iii) a second electrode coupled to the substrate and having a second electrode inner surface and a second electrode outer surface, the second electrode inner surface spaced apart from the first electrode outer surface to define a capacitance gap between the first and second electrodes;
(iv) a PCM disposed within the PCM cavity;
and
(v) a heater element disposed within the PCM cavity and coupled to receive a voltage pulse, whereby a temperature of the PCM varies to thereby vary the capacitance gap;
a power source coupled to each PCM variable MEMS capacitor and operable to (i) supply the voltage pulse to each heater element and (ii) a time-dependent voltage between each of the first electrodes and each of the second electrodes, whereby a single multiply operation is implemented by each PCM variable MEMS capacitor;
and
a circuit coupled to each PCM variable MEMS capacitor and configured to sum together each of the single multiply operations implemented by each PCM variable MEMS capacitor.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.