Vacuum integrated circuit
OwnerLazaro M. Honginventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An integrated circuit including a plurality of active devices each including a thermionic cathode or a cold cathode, an anode, and a grid element, all coplanarly disposed on an insulating substrate in a vacuum. A plurality of electrostatic lens elements also are exposed on the substrate to produce electric fields that control the trajectories of electrons emitted by the cathodes to prevent the electrons from migrating to and charging up exposed portions of the substrate and the inner surface of the vacuum envelope and thereby preventing such charge buildup from altering the electrical characteristics of the active devices.
Claims16
A vacuum integrated circuit comprising:
- (a) an insulating substrate;
- (b) a vacuum envelope for producing a vacuum over a surface of the substrate;
- (c) cathode means on the surface for emitting electrons into the vacuum;
- (d) grid means on the surface adjacent to the cathode means for controlling the velocity of emitted electrons;
- (e) anode means on the surface adjacent to the grid means for collecting emitted electrons to produce an anode current;
- and
- (f) electrostatic lens means on the surface adjacent to and in spaced relationship to the cathode means, grid means, and anode means for producing an electric field in the vacuum to control the trajectories of electrons emitted from the cathode means so that the electrons travel to the anode means and for preventing emitted electrons that are not collected by the anode means from charging up other surfaces in the vacuum.
A method of operating a vacuum integrated circuit comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a substrate and a vacuum envelope, producing a vacuum, an anode, a grid, and a cathode disposed on the substrate in the vacuum, and a plurality of electrostatic lens elements on the substrate;
- (b) applying a sufficient voltage between the cathode and the anode to cause the cathode to emit electrons into the vacuum;
- and
- (c) applying voltages to the electrostatic lens elements to produce a pseudo-radial electrostatic field that focuses nearly all of the emitted electrons from the cathode to the anode;
- whereby at most a negligible number of the emitted electrons travel to and charge up surfaces bounding the vacuum.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.