QUITERON

noun (Science and Technology) An electronic device which operates rather like a transistor in switching and amplifying, but uses superconducting materials rather than semiconductors and needs less power to do its switching. Etymology: Formed from letters taken from the full technical name of the effect on which its working depends, QUasiparticle Injection Tunnelling Effect, and the last three letters of -tron. History and Usage: The quiteron was developed by Sadeq Faris for IBM and patented in the US in 1982. When the invention was first announced to the electronics community in 1983, it was thought that it could eventually replace the principle of the semiconducting transistor; whether it will in fact do so remains to be seen. The quiteron is not the first superconducting device that engineers have considered for chips. New Scientist 10 Feb. 1983, p. 369