Electrical overstress protection material and process
First Claim
1. A non-linear resistance material to provide electrical overstress protection against electrical transients, the material comprising a matrix formed of a mixture of:
- (a) separate particles of conductive materials, the sizes of the majority of the conductive particles being less than about several hundred microns;
(b) separate particles of semiconductor materials, the sizes of the majority of the semiconductor particles being less than about several hundred microns; and
(c) inorganic insulating material coating the particles of conductive material and the particles of semiconductor material to provide chains of the particles within the matrix with interparticle separation distances along the chains less than about several hundred angstroms, on average, thereby permitting substantial non-linear conduction between particles in said chains by quantum-mechanical tunneling of electrons in response to electrical transients.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A material provides protection against electrical overstress transients having rise times as rapid as a few nanoseconds or less. The material comprises a matrix formed of a mixture of separate particles of conductive materials and separate particles of semiconductor materials coated with insulating material to provide chains of the particles within the matrix with interparticle separation distances along the chains less than several hundred angstroms, thereby to permit quantum-mechanical tunneling of electrons between the separate particles in response to high energy electrical transients.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. A non-linear resistance material to provide electrical overstress protection against electrical transients, the material comprising a matrix formed of a mixture of:
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(a) separate particles of conductive materials, the sizes of the majority of the conductive particles being less than about several hundred microns; (b) separate particles of semiconductor materials, the sizes of the majority of the semiconductor particles being less than about several hundred microns; and (c) inorganic insulating material coating the particles of conductive material and the particles of semiconductor material to provide chains of the particles within the matrix with interparticle separation distances along the chains less than about several hundred angstroms, on average, thereby permitting substantial non-linear conduction between particles in said chains by quantum-mechanical tunneling of electrons in response to electrical transients. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A process for formulating a non-linear resistance material to protect against electrical transients comprising the steps of:
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(a) providing separate particles of conductive materials and particles of semiconductor materials, the sizes of the particles being generally less than several hundred microns; (b) coating each of the particles of conductive materials and each of the particles of semiconductor materials with inorganic insulating material; and (c) mixing the coated particles of conductive materials with the coated particles of semiconductor materials to form a generally homogeneous matrix with a myriad of chains of adjacent particles wherein the particles are spaced apart by the insulating coating by no more than several hundred angstroms to allow substantial electron conduction between particles by quantum-mechanical tunneling in response to applied electrical transients. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A non-linearly resistance device for protecting against electrical transients, the device comprising:
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(a) a matrix of a non-linearly resistive material consisting of a random mixture of separate particles of conductive materials and semiconductor materials with inorganic insulating material coating the conductive particles and the semiconductor particles to separate the particles in chains of particles of conductive materials and semiconductor materials by distance sufficiently small to permit quantum-mechanical tunneling of electrons between said particles in response to electrical transients; and (b) electrode means for electrically coupling the matrix material between ground and an electrical means to be protected from electrical transients. - View Dependent Claims (36)
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Specification