The Macrodynamics of Digital Excitation

Abstract

In the preceding chapters I discussed switching transients in the gate-field and discussed how they are similar to and different from the quantum-mechanical phenomena of the microscopic world. In this chapter I discuss why macroscopic objects like a logic gate and a digital excitation exhibit features that are substantially quantum-mechanical. This attempt includes a new feature. Instead of identifying an approximately localized excitation in a classical particle, we consider a state extending over the entire circuit. For an entire circuit to have a simple, integrated state, the circuit must have a means of integration, which is feedback. We consider the closed loops of a cascaded circuit or generally, a multiple-loop ringoscillator. To carry out this program, we need a significantly different mathematical approach, not at the circuit level but at the gate level. This method has an interesting feature: It allows interpretation of the digital circuit’s quantum-mechanical phenomena in terms of classical mechanics, thereby allowing easy understanding, but simultaneously making the boundary between the two regimes quite unclear.