Multistate device for electronic counting

Abstract

The disclosure is directed to an electronic circuit and method for counting input electrical signals. An embodiment of the method of the invention includes the following steps: providing a device having a current versus voltage characteristic with a plurality of peaks, and negative resistance regions between the peaks; generating a triggering pulse in response to each input signal to be counted, and applying said triggering pulse to the device to change the voltage across the device; and outputting the voltage across the device as an indication of the number of received input signals. The device may be a resonant tunneling diode with multiple peaks in its current versus voltage characteristic. The preferred embodiment of the method of the invention includes the step of providing a load resistance means across the device. In this embodiment, the triggering pulse is operative to change the voltage across the device to a stable operating point of the device in conjunction with the load resistance means. Also in this embodiment, the step of providing a triggering pulse comprises providing a current pulse whose magnitude depends on the present stable operating point of the device in conjunction with the load resistance means. The counting technique and apparatus of the present invention operates at high speed and without undue complexity.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.