Plasma interconnects and circuits for logic gates and computer sub-circuits

Logic gates using plasma-linked microplasma devices are demonstrated in this work. The space charge around a microplasma was used to lower the breakdown voltage of nearby device by 20–40 V. This mechanism was used to establish electrical connection between neighboring microplasma devices without the use of metallization traces. The decay lengths of the space charge were in the range of 178–400 μm depending on the type of gas used. He and Ar gases were used at atmospheric pressure to evaluate the effect of gas species on the space charge decay length. Plasmas can be used to connect devices in 3 dimensions, and their decay constant can be adjusted using pressure, boundary conditions, and gaseous species. Using plasma interconnects, universal gates including OR, AND, NOT, and XOR and computer sub-circuits such as 1 bit adders were designed and characterized.