THE THATTE STRUCTURE:
A Hybrid GNR Gate / SWCNT@MWCNT Channel FET for Balanced Ternary Logic

Overview

A novel field-effect transistor structure designed specifically for balanced ternary logic. The device achieves three stable conducting states through a unique combination of carbon nanotube channel and graphene nanoribbon gate electrode, operating across three voltage rails (VDD, GND, VSS) with symmetric threshold voltages.

The THATTE Structure is the foundational device upon which the entire balanced ternary computing stack is built. It provides the physical basis for encoding three logic states (+1, 0, -1) in a single transistor, replacing the binary on/off paradigm with a tri-state current-direction encoding scheme.

Key Claims

The patent protects the following innovations at the device level:

• A field-effect transistor structure achieving three stable conducting states for balanced ternary logic
• A coaxial carbon nanotube channel architecture providing inherent noise reduction
• A graphene nanoribbon gate electrode enabling symmetric threshold voltage characteristics
• A three-rail power distribution scheme (VDD/GND/VSS) for ternary operation
• Symmetric switching behaviour with matched positive and negative threshold voltages

Layer in the Stack

Foundation — Hardware & Physics. This is the bottom-most patent in the THATTE stack. The device structure defined here is used by P2 (switching method), fabricated using the process in P3, and composed into logic gates in P6.

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