Status: Granted in Japan (JP6692439B2), US (10438841B2), ROC (TWI669782B); Published in PRC (CN 108352358), ROK (KR 20180054924)
Assignee: Amorphyx Inc.
Overview: This patent was one of the first developed independently by Amorphyx. It builds upon the original amorphous metal non-linear resistor patent developed by Oregon State. This patent describes other possible amorphous metal non-linear resistor structures that have more than two tunneling junctions. The key advantage of these structures being that the resistor threshold voltage can be varied substantially (from 5V to >80V), without altering the tunneling insulator material or thickness, and therefore the fundamental quantum tunneling conduction mechanism that gives AMNR their speed.
Many display applications (e.g. LCD and OLED) require a threshold voltage greater than 5V, which gives this type of >2 tunneling junction AMNR (often referred to as AMNR-X) utility to the display industry. Amorphyx used AMNR-X devices to fabricate the world’s first AMNR-LCD in collaboration with BOE.
Abstract: Amorphous multi-component metallic films can be used to improve the performance of electronic components such as resistors, diodes, and thin film transistors. Interfacial properties of AMMFs are superior to those of crystalline metal films, and therefore electric fields at the interface of an AMMF and an oxide film are more uniform. An AMMF resistor (AMNR) can be constructed as a three-layer structure including an amorphous metal, a tunneling insulator, and a crystalline metal layer. By modifying the order of the materials, the patterns of the electrodes, and the size and number of overlap areas, the I-V performance characteristics of the AMNR are adjusted. A non-coplanar AMNR has a five-layer structure that includes three metal layers separated by metal oxide tunnelling insulator layers, wherein an amorphous metal thin film material is used to fabricate the middle electrodes.