Steady-state characteristics of long arrays of tunnel junctions

Devices based on Coulomb blockade and single-electron tunneling have a promise of use in many future applications. This paper investigates the characteristics of long arrays of tunnel junctions. Simulations based on the Master Equation formalism are used in this study. The characteristics reveal that the differential conductance of the long array shows significant discontinuities. The patterns are studied against the overall set of states and events contributing to the dynamics of the circuit. It is shown that the discontinuities are attributed to the change in the number of states and events due to the creation and annihilation of states resulting from the changes in bias conditions. Study of noise characteristics in long arrays was also carried out using Monte-Carlo simulations. It is shown that long arrays are more resilient to noise than shorter arrays.