Device Applications of Charge Rectifiers

Two circuit models of a semiconductor junction rectifier are presented. For times long compared to the effective minority carrier lifetime, the usual current rectifier concept obtains. For times short compared to the lifetime, a charge rectifier is better able to explain experimental results; reverse recovery is evidence of this. Viewed in this way, semiconductor junctions are suitable for certain types of digital information processing. Voltage gain is limited only by junction breakdown and driver capability but charge (current) gain is inevitably less than one. The amount of charge run-down is shown to depend on the time the information is in the circuit. Scan generators, shift registers, serial memories, and serial converters have been studied as examples of the wide range of applications for which these devices are suitable.