Inventors:
Alvin J. Drehman - Chelmsford MA
Stephen Bachowski - Woburn MA
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air
Force - Washington DC
International Classification:
H01L 3900
H01L 3916
H03K 1792
H03K 338
Abstract:
A superconducting switch is composed of anisotropic magnetic material. The switch has a first superconducting section, a variable resistive section and a second superconducting section. An external magnetic field is applied so that the first and second superconducting sections remain superconducting and the resistive section changes resistance when the magnetic field applied exceeds the critical field of the variable resistance section. The different critical field regions are achieved by exploiting the natural critical field anisotropy of the ceramic superconductors (a previously unobserved phenomena in metal superconductors). By making the different sections with different orientations they will exhibit different critical field valves for a given direction of applied fields. The state of the switch is changed by either increasing or decreasing the external magnetic field about the critical field value of the resistive section of the switch. The first superconducting section is connected to the resistive section and the resistive section is connected to the second superconducting section to form a switch circuit.