Composite Characteristics of Negative Resistance Devices and Their Application in Digital Circults

When a number of negative resistance elements are interconnected, a multistable voltage-current characteristic will be generated. The form of this composite characteristic will depend on the mode of interconnection and on the characteristics of the individual elements. 2n stable states can be generated using n negative resistance elements when the individual characteristics of the elements obey certain rules derived herein. A modified flip-flop circuit has been developed whose characteristic can be precisely tailored to fulfill the requirements. Several applications to logical functions are discussed. Potential advantages of this method lie in the circuit simplicity resulting from an intrinsic feedback operation which replaces separate logical functions.