Patent ID: 8017935

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a substrate; an insulating layer disposed on the substrate having a first insulator region with a first thickness, a second insulator region with a second thickness, and a third insulator region with the first thickness, wherein the second thickness is greater than the first thickness, and wherein the second insulator region is disposed between the first and third insulator regions; a first doped region disposed in the substrate, wherein the first doped region underlies at least a portion of the first insulator region; a second doped region disposed in the substrate, wherein the second doped region underlies at least a portion of the third insulator region; and a gate disposed over the second insulator region and over at least a portion of each of the first and third insulator regions so as to form a first tunnel junction between the gate and the first doped region and to form a second tunnel junction between the gate and the second doped region, and wherein the gate forms a continuous conduction region between the first and second tunnel junctions.