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US 7,583,176 B1Granted
Switch apparatus
AssigneeLockheed Martin Corporation
InventorKevin L. Robinson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A circuit including: at least one conductor; a least one vanadium oxide region electrically coupled to the at least one conductor; and, at least one thermionic cooler thermally coupled to the vanadium oxide region; wherein, the thermionic cooler is suitable for transitioning the at least one vanadium oxide region from a first temperature range where the at least one vanadium oxide region is substantially conductive to a second temperature range where the at least one vanadium oxide region is substantially non-conductive.
Claims3
A switching circuit comprising:
- first and second conductors;
- at least two vanadium oxide regions, each electrically coupled to a corresponding one of said first and second conductors;
- at least two thermionic coolers;
- wherein each thermionic cooler is thermally coupled to one of said vanadium oxide regions for transitioning one of said vanadium oxide regions from a first temperature range where said vanadium oxide region is substantially conductive, to a second temperature range where said vanadium oxide region is substantially non-conductive;
- and
- an isolation region that separates each of said vanadium oxide regions and corresponding said thermionic coolers to mitigate thermal leakage between said regions;
- whereby thermal leakage from one of said coolers associated with a transitioned vanadium oxide region is insufficient to transition the other of said vanadium oxide regions.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.