Shaping technology building society: studies in socio-technical change

A PNIPN (or PNPN) semiconductor structure, with a pair of terminals on each of the intermediate N and P zones, is forward biased with respect to the outer P and N zones. Thereby, a current filament is formed whose lateral position can be controlled by control of the voltages across each of the pairs of terminals, as well as by an external magnetic field. Such current filaments can be utilized in a variety of semiconductor devices including magnetic field detectors, optical cameras, binary encoders and other logic devices.