Bipolar microelectronic device

A system to modulate electric current, the system comprising:

• a substrate;
• a sealed packaging enclosing at least a surface of the substrate forming a partial vacuum environment between the sealed packaging and the surface of the substrate;
• a bipolar microelectronic device disposed on the surface of the substrate in the partial vacuum environment, the bipolar microelectronic device comprising,
• an electron source electrode that provides a flow of electrons;
• an ionizable gas in the partial vacuum environment, at least a portion of the ionizable gas forming ion particles in response to impact with the electrons from the electron source electrode, the ion particles having a positive electric charge;
• a first bias electrode and a second bias electrode that form an electric field gradient in a path of the flow of electrons in response to an application of a bias voltage differential between the first and second bias electrodes;
• and
• a collector electrode that collects more electrons than ion particles in response to a collector electrode input voltage being above a threshold and collects more ion particles than electrons in response to the collector electrode input voltage being below the threshold.

A method for modulating electric current, the method comprising:

• providing a flow of electrons from an electron source in a partial vacuum environment;
• forming ion particles from an ionizable gas in the partial vacuum environment in response to impacting the ionizable gas with the electrons, the ion particles having a positive electric charge;
• applying a bias voltage differential between first and second bias electrodes in the partial vacuum environment to form an electric field gradient in a path of the flow of electrons;
• collecting more electrons than ion particles at a collector electrode in the partial vacuum environment in response to a collector electrode input voltage being above a threshold;
• and
• collecting more ion particles than electrons at the collector electrode in the partial vacuum environment in response to the collector electrode input voltage being below the threshold.