Summerland wanted to use that current to drive a bipolar transistor. This results in the generation of a quantum current. Summerland hit upon the idea of using the reverse bias characteristic of a Zener diode, which is produced by the abrupt change in doping levels between the n and p layers of the diode. The original aim was to create a chip with a low number of mask steps that could have both logic and power transistors on the same die, with the original intention of creating an LED driver IC.
NOR gates created by (left) a single Bizen transistor, (center) CMOS transistors (note that the left hand side of the circuit is for ESD protection, which is not required by the Bizen version), and (right) the equivalent circuit in TTL.
