Glassy bistable electrical switching and memory device

Abstract

Abstract 1,141,644. Glass to metal seals; coating with glass. STANDARD TELEPHONES & CABLES Ltd. 10 Feb., 1967 [10 Nov., 1965], No. 47656/65. Heading C1M. [Also in Division H1] The body 32 of an electrical switching and memory device is of a glassy material comprising a glass-forming oxide, an oxide of a Group II metal and at least one oxide of a variablevalency metal different from the glass-forming oxide. Two spaced electrodes 30, 31 make intimate contact with the body 32. The glass-forming oxide may be B 2 O 3 , P 2 O 5 or SiO 2 , while the Group II metal oxide may be CaO, CdO or ZnO. The variable-valency metal may be Cu, Mn, Fe or W. As shown the body 32 is formed as a bead between two Pt wires 30, 31 arranged perpendicularly to each other, and spaced by about 50Á. The wires may alternatively be arranged end-to-end, and may be made of Mo. Further embodiments are described in which the glassy body is deposited on to a conducting layer on a substrate, e.g. by vacuum evaporation, by sputtering, or by a glow discharge through a low pressure mixture of oxygen and volatile compounds of the oxide forming elements. The body may also be formed by providing a conducting layer on an insulating substrate with a film of the metals which are to provide the metal oxide constituents of the body, and heating the structure in a vapour of the glass-forming oxide and oxygen. One or more metal electrodes are then evaporated on to the surface of the glassy layer.

Inventors

• 👤 Cyril Francis Drake
• 👤 John Henry Alexander

Bibliographic Details