Patent ID: 8854860

Claim:
A metal-insulator transition (MIT) latch, comprising: a first electrode spaced apart from a second electrode; an MIT material disposed between said first and second electrodes; said MIT material comprising a negative differential resistance (NDR) characteristic that exhibits a discontinuous resistance change at a threshold voltage or threshold current; and at least said first or said second electrode is electrically connected to an electrical bias source regulated to set a resistance phase of said MIT material by applying a bias signal outside of a NDR range and to hold said MIT material within said stable resistance phase by adjusting said bias within said NDR range; wherein said MIT material exhibits an current/voltage relationship that follows I=(T MIT −T amb )/V*α, where I represents current, V represents voltage, T MIT represents a transition temperature where said MIT material transitions from a metal phase to an insulator phase, T amb represents an ambient internal temperature, and α represents the effective thermal resistance of the latch.