Abstract:
An apparatus for controllable propagation of magnetic domains, or bubbles, through an arrangement of closely spaced magnetic propagating elements arranged in an input stage, a strip-former stage, and a decoder stage. Binary logic circuitry results from selective control of bubble movement through alternate paths of elements, with at least one of said paths producing a domain strip extending the full height of the strip-former stage. The decoder stage includes a propagating element spaced apart from the strip-former stage a distance sufficient to prevent propagation of all domains in the strip-former stage except for the full-height strip.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to the field of electrical signal control, and more specifically to binary logic gates for magnetic bubble circuits. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Technology related to storage and propagation of magnetic bubbles has existed for a number of years and is well documented in the prior art. The term &#34;magnetic bubbles&#34; refers to small domains of reversed magnetization which exist in certain uniaxial magnetic thin films when a bias field of appropriate magnitude is applied. Storage and propagation of the bubbles is possible by arranging magnetically permeable thin film elements on a substrate to form a path for the bubbles, which propagate along the path in response to a rotating field. Proven advantages of magnetic bubble circuits incude high bit packing density, low power consumption, low cost, and high reliability. 
     While bubble storage and propagation technology is rather well developed, the use of this technology to create effective binary logic gates has been less successful. A logic gate must provide alternative paths for bubble propagation such that bubble interaction determines which of the alternate paths is taken. Typically a propagation path will branch into &#34;hard&#34; and &#34;easy&#34; paths, with a bubble traversing the &#34;easy&#34; path in the absence of any interaction. The difficulty with such gate designs is that the &#34;hard&#34; path tends to collapse bubbles, and thus establishes an upper limit for the bias field. At the path junction, bubbles tend to strip-out between the alternate paths, thereby establishing a lower limit for the bias field. Strip-out refers to an elongation of a bubble across several adjacent path elements, and is conventionally regarded as a device failure. The device operating margin is the difference between the upper and lower operating limits on the bias field, and for prior art bubble logic gates this margin is undesirably small. 
     Another difficulty of prior art logic devices arises from the presence of a strong interaction force between the bubbles and individual propagation patterns, which tends to overpower the bubble-to-bubble interaction force. Bubbles thus must be brought very close together in order to obtain logic action; the close spacing leads to bubble collapse at high bias, and bubble strip-out failure at low bias. Disclosures illustrating logic gates with provision for close bubble interaction include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,117,543 to Minnick and 3,723,716 to Bobeck et al. Both teach wide columnar structures of chevrons, but their close chevron spacing makes the gates so susceptible to strip-out that they cannot be operated in a normal bias range. 
     In order to reduce the force exerted on a bubble by the propagation paths, a logic gate can utilize thick spacing between the bubble material and the permalloy propagation patterns. This causes the permissible propagation speeds to be substantially reduced, and the use of circuits containing passive bubble replicators is rendered impractical. 
     An alternative scheme for bubble logic is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,924 to Ishihara et al., which includes chevron columns wherein the vertical distance between adjacent chevrons is gradually increased along the propagation path and the chevron width is gradually decreased. Strip-out is allowed to occur in those cases where only a single bubble is provided into the circuit, and the strip is subsequently converted back into a bubble on a predetermined path by a taffy-pulling arrangement. That is, as the strip becomes excessively enlongated by the continuously widening chevron gaps, it eventually breaks off from the narrow chevrons and consolidates on the wider center element. This approach requires an abnormally high bias field to aid in detaching the ends of the strip. This high bias tends to collapse bubbles on the narrow chevrons when two bubbles are input simultaneously. Further, propagation speed in this device is undesirably limited due to the large vertical spacing of the chevron elements which provide only a low density of magnetic poles along the length of an elongated strip domain. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The strip-out phenomenon which conventionally is responsible for failures in bubble devices can be used to advantage in the design of bubble logic gates. Rather than attempt to suppress strip-out, bubble domain interactions are accomplished in a strip-former stage where the interaction is simple and reliable. The strip-former is capable of elongating a single domain into a strip which occupies the full height of the stage. In a symmetric strip-former a single bubble provided to either input will form such a full height strip, but in a strip-former with asymmetric geometry the full elongation of a bubble will depend on which input provided the bubble. In either type of strip-former, two bubbles simultaneously input to the device will interact so that neither bubble forms a full-height strip. The strip forming stage functions to encode bubble interaction as the absence of a full-height strip, and in the asymmetric case absence of a strip depends further on the bubble input location. A variety of logic functions can be produced from the output of the strip-former stage by a decoding arrangement in a subsequent decoding stage. The decoding stage contains one or more bubble propagating elements which are spaced or shaped to inhibit the propagation of either a bubble or a strip domain. A chevron propagation element will inhibit bubble propagation if it is spaced from the strip former by a relatively wide gap, but the center of a strip can cross the wide gap if the strip ends are held to prevent contraction of the strip. Other propagation elements termed &#34;discriminators&#34; propagate bubbles while inhibiting propagation of a strip end. Discriminators are designed to provide a field gradient which will propagate bubbles, but with insufficient field magnitude to permit the domain elongation needed for propagation of a strip end. 
     Bubble logic gates in which bubbles are neither created nor destroyed are termed &#34;conservative&#34; gates. Non-conservative logic gates can be made by including bubble replicators (strip cutters) or annihilators in the gate structure. Whenever a strip is output from the strip former stage, that strip may be cut by cutting elements locaed either in the strip forming stage or in the decoding stage. When strips are cut, ordinary propagation elements rather than discriminators may be used for output of the bubbles generated from the strip ends. Bubbles output from the strip former stage may be destroyed (collapsed) by annihilators located either in the strip former stage or in the decoder stage. Annihilators located in the strip former serve both to annihilate bubbles and to hold strip ends while the center of a strip crosses a wide gap. 
     All bubble logic gates in my invention use a common type of bubble interaction. This interaction occurs between elongated bubble domains, and the exact position of the interacting domain ends is not critical. The parallel propagation paths are not required to be closely spaced, and the spacing can be sufficiently larger to accommodate three output propagation paths. Within the normal range of bias field, it is physically impossible for the domain interaction to be encoded improperly, since two domains cannot simultaneously occupy the same position. The critical design issues relate to the nature of bubble and strip propagation in the decoder section, and the decoder operation benefits from the absence of bubble interaction in that section. 
     Accordingly, it is an object of my invention to provide a binary logic circuit which overcomes the many disadvantages of the prior art. 
     It is a further object to provide a logic gate capability in an apparatus for the propagation of magnetic bubbles. 
     It is also an object to provide logic gates containing bubble replicators and annihilators, thereby producing nonconservative logic functions. 
     Still another object is to provide a logic gate apparatus in which the bubble domain interaction function is distinct from the output logic determination function. 
     Another object is to provide a multi-stage bubble propagation apparatus. 
     A further object is to provide bubble logic apparatus utilizing both symmetrical and asymetrical arrangements of propagating elements. 
     A still further object is to utilize the phenomena of strip-out to advantage in bubble logic. 
     Another object is to provide bubble logic gates of small size which are capable of high speed operation. 
     It is also an object to provide bubble logic capable of operating reliably over a useful range of bias field. 
     An apparatus having these and other advantages would include an input stage including inputs for receiving one or more bubbles, a strip-former stage adjacent the input stage and including a plurality of propagating elements vertically spaced so as to selectively form bubbles or strips of variable height dependent upon the combination of bubbles provided to the first stage, at least one of said combinations producing a strip extending the full height of said strip-former stage, and a decoding stage having a first output propagating element spaced apart from said strip former a distance sufficient to prevent propagation of all but said full-height strip onto said first output element. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Other objects and the many advantages of my invention will be apparent as it becomes better understood by reading the description which follows together with the drawings, in which: 
     FIGS. 1A-1C illustrate a first example of bubble logic apparatus, including an asymmetrical strip-former stage. 
     FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate a second bubble logic apparatus, having multiple outputs. 
     FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate a logic apparatus including a symmetrical strip-former and an annihilator element in the strip-former stage. 
     FIGS. 4A-4B illustrate another logic apparatus, including cutter elements in the strip-former stage. 
     FIGS. 5A-5B illustrate a logic apparatus having an annihilator element in the decoder stage. 
     FIGS. 6A-6B illustrate a further bubble logic apparatus, including a cutter element in the decoder stage. 
     FIGS. 7A-7B illustrate a logic apparatus, including an idler element. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to FIG. 1A, there is illustrated a representative magnetic bubble logic circuit having the desirable characteristics of my invention. The circuit includes an input stage 11, followed in sequence by a strip-former stage 12 and a decoding stage 13. It will become apparent upon further reading that the input stage may take many forms and need not necessarily exist as a distinct separate stage in all cases. Specifically, the input stage might be the decoder stage of a prior logic gate in an apparatus where more than one logic gate is placed end to end. The stages include propagating elements of various types and shapes, such as element 16 which is commonly designated a chevron and element 17, called an asymmetric chevron. A customary use of asymmetric chevrons is to form propagation paths connecting logic gates. 
     Inputs A and B are conventional means (not shown), through which it is made possible to provide a bubble into the apparatus at point A, point B, or both. FIG. 1A specifically illustrates the case where a bubble has been provided at point A only. Bubble 14 propagates across element 17 and jumps gap 15 into the strip-former stage 12, where it elongates vertically into a strip 18. The vertical gap 21 is too great to allow strip 18 to extend further to element 19. The rotating magnetic field causes strip 18 to propagate to the right in a conventional manner until it crosses gaps 25 and 26 as illustrated by strip 22. Vertical gap 23 is spanned by strip 22 because of the prior elongation of strip 18, which does not contract as it crosses gaps 25 and 26. Further elongation results in a strip which extends the full height of the strip-former stage 12. As strip 22 continues propagating to the right it reaches the position illustrated by strip 27. A wide horizontal gap 28 separates stages 12 and 13. What constitutes a wide gap will necessarily be dependent upon the operating bias. For purposes of this description, a wide gap may be defined as one at least wide enough to prohibit propagation of a bubble domain (as opposed to a strip domain) at the operating bias field. 
     Strip 27, which is held at its ends by annihilator elements 30--30, bows in the middle as a result of repulsion by elements 29--29 and attraction by element 31. As a result, the center of strip 27 propagates across gap 28 onto element 31, the annihilator elements release the strip ends, and the strip shrinks to a bubble on element 31. The bubble 32 is seen at the output of the apparatus, ready for use as an input signal to a similar device or propagation element. It is thus seen that a bubble provided only to the A input causes a bubble to appear at the device output, consistent with the logic function A·B. 
     FIG. 1B shows an apparatus identical to that of FIG. 1A, except that a bubble has been provided at input B as well as at input A. The bubble 39 from input A forms a strip 41 as previously illustrated in FIG. 1A, while the bubble 40 from input B propagates as bubble 42 on element 19. As bubble 42 reaches the right-most end of element 19, it easily jumps gap 43 and elongates into strip 46. Strip 41 similarly propagates to the right and crosses gaps 24 and 26; however, the mutual repulsive forces between the two magnetic domains 46 and 47 maintains a small separation between the two strips as illustrated. Each strip continues to propagate to the right as illustrated by strips 48 and 51, at which point neither is able to cross to element 21 due to mutual repulsion and the large distance across gap 28. Both strips shrink into the annihilator elements 30--30, and are collapsed, with the result that no bubble appears on element 31. This again, is consistent with the operation of the A·B logic function. 
     FIG. 1C shows the last example illustrating the apparatus of FIGS. 1A and 1B, with a bubble 60 provided only at input B. Bubble 61, unable to form a strip because of gap 21, propagates to the right and jumps the gap 42. It elongates into strip 62, but is unable to elongate further because of gap 23. It continues to propagate to the right unitl it reaches the position illustrated by strip 63, where it is unable to jump gap 28 and is collapsed by annihilator element 30. 
     The three examples illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1C demonstrate that the apparatus performs the logic function A·B. This result is achieved by a three stage device utilizing stripping vertical propagation element spacing, and mutual domain repulsion to selectively produce the presence or absence of a strip extending the full height of the strip-former stage. A wide horizontal gap separates the propagation elements of the strip-former stage from an element in the decode stage, the gap being sufficiently wide to inhibit propagation of any but the full-height strip onto the decoder element. 
     FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate another example of my invention, in which an asymmetrical strip former stage and multiple decoder stage elements are combined in an apparatus which provides the logic functions A·B, A·B and B. 
     Referring to FIG. 2A, there are seen an input stage 71, a strip-former stage 72 and a decoder stage 73. A domain provided at input B propagates across element 76 as bubble 77, crosses the small gap 78 to element 81 as illustrated by bubble 82, and crosses the small gap 83 to elongate into strip 86. The larger vertical gaps at 87, 88 and 91 prevent elongation of bubbles 77 and 82 and of strip 86 beyond the extent illustrated. When strip 92 reaches the point indicated, it is unable to jump the large horizontal gap 93 but easily jumps the small gap 96 to cross element 97 and appear as bubble 98 on the B output. 
     FIG. 2B illustrates the operation of the apparatus of FIG. 2A when a bubble is provided only at the A input. Bubble 111 crosses small gap 112 and elongates into strip 113. The larger vertical gap 116 prevents strip 113 from elongating further onto element 117, but as it reaches small gaps 118 and 121, strip 113 easily crosses both and elongates into strip 122. This full-height strip propagates to the right to the position illustrated by strip 123, where the center of the strip crosses the larger horizontal gap 126 and attaches to element 127. The outer ends of strip 123 initially cross the small gaps 95 and 96 ab attach to discriminator elements 129 and 130 in the decoder stage. These elements are shaped to promote propagation of a bubble but to inhibit propagation of strip ends. As a result, the ends detach from the discriminator elements and the strip shrinks to bubble 128 at the A·B output. 
     FIG. 2C illustrates the case for bubbles provided at both the A and B inputs. Bubble 141 crosses gap 142 and elongates into strip 143, as bubble 146 crosses gap 78 to appear as bubble 147 on element 117. Domains 143 and 147 each propagate to the right where bubble 147 crosses gap 83 and strip 143 crosses gaps 118 and 121. Mutual repulsion, together with the large size of gap 126, prevents either of domains 148 or 151 from crossing gap 126, so no domain appears at the A·B output. However, the end of strip 151 readily crosses gap 152, and strip 152 shrinks to provide a bubble 187 which propagates on discriminator 154 to the A·B output. Domain 156 crosses gap 96 to provide a bubble 158 which propagates on discriminator 155 to the B output. 
     FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate still another example of logic gate utilizing the principles of my invention. FIG. 3A shows an input stage 161, a strip-former stage 162 and a decoder stage 163. Bubble 166 is provided to the A input, propagates across gap 167 and elongates into strip 168. This full-height strip propagates to the right until it reaches the point illustrated by strip 171, which is held at its ends and bows in the middle to cross the wide gap 172 to element 173. One end of strip 171 fails to propagate on the discriminator 174 and is released. The other end is repelled from annihilator 175. Strip 171 shrinks and appears at the output as bubble 176 to provide a &#34;1&#34; at the A⊕B output. A bubble provided at the B input would elongate exactly as did bubble 166 into a strip 168. From this pont the circuit would function exactly as it did with the A input to provide a &#34;1&#34; at the output, consistent with the A⊕B function. 
     FIG. 3B illustrates the case for a &#34;1&#34; applied at both the A and B inputs, as shown by bubbles 177 and 178. Bubble 177 propagates across gap 167 as illustrated by bubble 185, and bubble 178 propagates across gap 181 as shown by bubble 182; however, neither is able to elongate into a full height strip due to the mutual repulsive magnetic forces exerted by each, and neither is able to cross the wide gap 172. The bubble 182 is thereafter collapsed by annihilator 175 when it reaches the point illustrated by bubble 183, while the bubble 186 crosses gap 187 and transits discriminator 184 to appear at the A·B output as illustrated by bubble 188. 
     FIGS. 4A-4B illustrate still another example of a logic gate utilizing my invention. FIG. 4A shows an input stage 201, a strip-former stage 202 and a decoder stage 203, with a bubble 205 provided to the A input. It crosses into the strip-former stage and elongates, first as illustrated by strip 206, and then as a full-height strip 207. As strip 208 reaches the position illustrated by strip 211, the domain is held by the ends and bows in the middle to jump large gap 212 to element 213. Cutters 216 and 217 separate the portion of strip 211 which has jumped gap 212, and a bubble 218 is provided to the A⊕B output. Both the upper and lower portions of strip 211 remain after the middle portion is cut away, with the result that the upper portion emerges at the upper A+B output as bubble 222, while the lower portion appears as bubble 226 at the lower A+B output. It is readily apparent that a domain applied only to the B input of the apparatus of FIG. 4A would similarly elongate into a strip 207 as shown, with the result that identical outputs would result as in the case of a bubble only at the A input. 
     In FIG. 4B, a bubble 241 is applied to the A input and a bubble 242 is applied to the B input. Neither is able to elongate into a full-height strip because of their mutual repulsive magnetic forces, so they propagate to the right as separate domains, as illustrated by domains 243 and 246. Domain 247 crosses the small gap to element 248 and appears as bubble 251 at the upper A+B output. In a similar manner, domain 252 crosses the small gap to element 253 and appears as bubble 256 at the lower A+B output. Neither domain is able to cross the large gap 212, so no bubble propagates to the A⊕B output in this case. 
     FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate a logic gate utilizing an annihilator in the decoder stage. In FIG. 5A, a bubble 270 provided at input A crosses gap 271 and elongates into a full-height strip 272. It propagates to the right to the point illustrated by strip 275, which bows in the middle and spans wide gap 276 to element 277. Since discriminator element 280 will not propagate a strip, the upper end of strip 275 detaches from element 280. The shortened strip propagates to the position shown by strip 282 where the annihilator 281 releases the lower strip end, and the strip shrinks to a bubble on element 284 and appears as bubble 285 at the A⊕B output. A bubble provided only to the B input would create a similar full-height strip 272, thereafter propagating as illustrated in FIG. 5A. 
     In FIG. 5B, a bubble 290 is provided to the A input and a bubble 291 is provided to the B input. Bubble 290 propagates to the right and crosses gap 292 while bubble 291 crosses gap 295. Each attempt to elongate into a full-height strip, but the mutual magnetic repulsion prevents any elongation beyond the extent illustrated by domains 296 and 297. Neither domain 296 or 297 is able to cross the wide gap 276. Domain 296 propagates to the right and crosses gap 300 to appear as bubble 301 and then at the A·B output as bubble 303. Domain 297 crosses gap 302 onto element 281, where it appears as bubble 305 which is collapsed by annihilator element 281. 
     FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate a bubble logic apparatus including a cutter element in the decoder stage. In FIG. 6A, a bubble 310 provided on the A input propagates across gap 311 and elongates into a full-height strip 312. This strip crosses the wide gap 316 and the narrow gap 321 to appear as strip 315 after the lower end has been released by annihilator 314. The upper portion of strip 315 is detached from the lower portion by action of the cutter element 320. The detached upper portion appears at the A+B output as bubble 322, and the detached lower portion appears as bubble 317 at the A⊕B output. It is readily apparent that a bubble provided on the B input would form a full-height strip 312 and that the gate operation would be identical to the case where a bubble is provided only to the A input. 
     In FIG. 6B, bubble 330 from input A and bubble 331 from input B each propagate across to the strip-former stage. Mutual repulsion causes the bubbles to retain their distinct identities, as illustrated by domains 332 and 335. Domain 332 crosses the small gap 321 and emerges as bubble 337 at the A+B output. Domain 335 propagates to the position shown by bubble 340, where it is unable to cross the wide gap to element 341 and is collapsed by annihilator 314. 
     FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate an inverter gate utilizing the principle of my invention. A bubble 350 applied to the A input of FIG. 7A propagates across gap 353 as shown by bubble 355. Propagating element 351 is a combination of an &#34;idler&#34;, an element known in the prior art, and a strip cutter. Its design is such that a bubble will circulate within the device, while a strip extending away from element 351 will be severed. A resident bubble 352 circulating on idler 351 will repel bubble 355, resulting in the state shown by bubbles 356 and 357. Neither bubble can jump the wide gap 360. Bubble 357 remains on the idler 351 and bubble 356 is collapsed by annihilator 354; thus, no domain appears at the A output. If no bubble is provided to the A input, as indicated in FIG. 7B, the bubble circulating on idler 351 elongates into a full-height strip 370 which propagates to the position illustrated by domain 371. It bows across gap 360 and attaches to element 372. The upper end of domain 371 is released by annihilator 354, and the lower end is severed by the cutter portion of idler 351. The upper domain segment appears as bubble 373 at the A output, and the lower segment remains on idler 351. 
     It is readily apparent from the above embodiments that my invention is susceptible to any number of modifications, and I do not intend that my invention be limited to the specific examples shown. Instead, it is my intent that my invention be limited only as set forth in the appended claims.