Switch with phase change material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10164608-B2
Application number	US-201715806584-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 8, 2017
Priority date	Nov 16, 2016
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

Switch comprising at least one PCM portion that can be in a conducting or blocked state depending on the amorphous or crystalline state of the PCM that can change state when it is heated,
in which the PCM portion is continuous and has an elongated shape such that an input and an output of the switch are connected to two ends of the PCM portion respectively that are separated from each other by a distance corresponding to the largest dimension of the PCM portion, and comprising a control device of the state of the switch capable of passing heating currents through the PCM portion, approximately perpendicular to the largest dimension of the PCM portion, from at least two input points separated from each other and separated from the ends of the PCM portion, to at least two output points separated from each other and separated from the ends of the PCM portion.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A switch comprising at least one PCM portion that can be in a conducting or blocked state depending on the amorphous or crystalline state of the PCM that can change state when it is heated,
in which the PCM portion is continuous and has an elongated shape such that an input and an output of the switch are connected to two ends of the PCM portion respectively that are spaced at a distance from each other corresponding to the largest dimension of the PCM portion,
and comprising a device to control the state of the switch capable of passing heating currents through the PCM portion, approximately perpendicular to the largest dimension of the PCM portion, from at least two input points at a distance from each other and at a distance from the ends of the PCM portion, to at least two output points at a distance from each other and at a distance from the ends of the PCM portion.

2. The switch according to claim 1 , in which the control device comprises a plurality of electronic components that form first current sources each capable of injecting one of the heating currents into the PCM portion from one of the input points, and second current sources each capable of extracting one of the heating currents from one of the output points.

3. The switch according to claim 2 , in which the first and second current sources formed by the electronic components of the control device can be controlled simultaneously by a same control signal CTR.

4. The switch according to claim 3 , in which each of the first current sources comprises at least one MOS transistor comprising one of its source and drain electrodes connected to one of the input points and the other of its source and drain electrodes to an electrical power supply voltage, and in which the control signal CTR can be applied to the gate.

5. The switch according to claim 3 , in which each of the second current sources comprises at least several MOS transistors mounted in a current mirror, at least one of said MOS transistors having a gate to which the control signal CTR can be applied.

6. The switch according to claim 5 , in which each of the second current sources also comprises at least one resistive element coupled to the current mirror and capable of forming a resistance with a first or a second value, different from each other and such that the value of the heating current extracted by the second current source is adapted as a function of the state of the switch that will be controlled by the control device.

7. The switch according to claim 3 , in which each of the second current sources are formed from at least one digital - analogue converter.

8. The switch according to claim 1 , in which the PCM portion is in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped with a length greater than its width and its thickness.

9. The switch according to claim 8 , in which the input points and output points are located on side faces of the PCM portion, separated from each other by a distance equal to its width.

10. The switch according to claim 1 , comprising several PCM portions located side by side and approximately parallel to each other, the control device being capable of passing heating currents through each of the PCM portions, approximately perpendicular to the largest dimension of each of the PCM portions, from at least two input points separated from each other and separated from the ends of each of the PCM portions, to at least two output points separated from each other and separated from the ends of each of the PCM portions.

11. The switch according to claim 2 , in which the switch also comprises a device coupled to the ends of the PCM portions and capable of compensating for parasite capacitances of MOS transistors that will activate or deactivate the first and second current sources.

12. The switch according to claim 2 , in which said electronic components comprise active zones formed in at least one semiconducting layer, and in which the PCM portion is located within a metallic interconnections level located above the semiconducting layer and separated from the semiconducting layer by at least one interlayer dielectric.

13. A transmission line matching device, comprising at least:
a first portion of electrically conducting material comprising a first end that will be connected to the transmission line and a second end connected to at least one second portion of the electrically conducting material that will be connected to a reference potential,
a plurality of switches according to claim 1 , the ends of the PCM portions of each of the switches being coupled to the first and second portions of electrically conducting material at different distances from the first end of the first portion of electrically conducting material such that the matching length of the device can be defined by the distance between the first end of the first portion of electrically conducting material and the switch in the conducting state closest to the first end of the first portion of electrically conducting material.

14. A phase shift device for a differential transmission line, comprising at least:
several first delay lines that will be coupled to a first electrically conducting portion of the differential transmission line;
several second delay lines that will be coupled to a second electrically conducting portion of the differential transmission line;
several switches according to claim 1 , the ends of the PCM portions of each of the switches being coupled to one of the first delay lines and to one of the second delay lines such that said first and second delay lines can be electrically connected to each other when the switch is in the conducting state and can be connected to a reference electrical potential when the switch is in the blocked state.

Assignees

• Commissariat Energie Atomique

Inventors

• Belot Didier
• Larie Aurelien
• Martineau Baudouin

Classifications

• H03K2005/00286

  Phase shifter, i.e. the delay between the output and input pulse is dependent on the frequency, and such that a phase difference is obtained independent of the frequency · CPC title

• H03K2005/0015

  Layout of the delay element · CPC title

• H03K5/159 Primary

  Applications of delay lines not covered by the preceding subgroups · CPC title

• H03H11/20 Primary

  Two-port phase shifters providing an adjustable phase shift · CPC title

• H03K2005/00026

  controlled by an analog electrical signal, e.g. obtained after conversion by a D/A converter · CPC title