Back-transient diode logic

Conventional diode switching circuits show a significant decline in performance and efficiency as their speed of operation is increased. Faster rise and fall times require correspondingly-greater peak currents to charge and discharge circuit capacitance, at the cost of increased static power dissipation, drive requirements, and noise. These peak currents are in demand for only a brief initial and final fraction of the total signaltime duration and might ideally be gated by a 2-step switch having a low resistance during these brief time intervals, with a much greater resistance for the remainder of the signal duration. The semiconductor diode approximates this function when rapidly switched in a low impedance circuit immediately following forward conduction. This is due to the well-known hole-storage effect, a property of diodes generally considered detrimental for rapid switching operations. However, it will be shown that hole storage may also serve as the design basis for a new type of diode-switching circuit, henceforth referred to as back-transient diode logic (BTDL), which exhibits good efficiency, low noise, and excellent compatibility with vacuum tubes or transistors at switching speeds as high as 30 mp (megapulses) per second.