A writeup based on prior knowledge or experience with similar devices (e.g. vacuum tubes) would definitely help understanding it better and what's required to make it work properly in practice. I can't claim I have any.
As for the patent you linked above, I found this:
http://www.rexresearch.com/nelson/nelson.htm
http://www.rexresearch.com/nelson/us6465965.pdf
http://www.rexresearch.com/nelson/us2001040434.pdf
The first link from RexResearch quotes PESN:
Quote"Lawrence Nelson visited NERL in 2003 and demonstrated his invention to NERL, at a time when I was with NERL. I worked with Lawrence for one month and successfully replicated his invention under his supervision, documenting more energy output than the input. Like PAGD (below), his "electron trap" is a vacuum tube technology that derives its energy from the vacuum continuum of space.
"Lawrence told me recently that he has a 1000 watt electric generator running in his laboratory right now, using only 200 watts of electricity input. He is also close to commercialization, but like the others, lacks business experience and funding.
"He is a scientist, a degreed physicist, and he knows what he is doing.
"He is not seeking public exposure but is eager to find funding for his project. Please do not promote his website unless it is done privately for serious interest in funding his company. His device can be as big or even bigger than the Correa PAGD, in my opinion."
The inventor managed to have one his patents granted, but that eventually expired due to lack payment. There don't seem to be newer patents with his name as an inventor.
By entering the application numbers in the USPTO Public Pair service there might be more information in the patent documentation, but I haven't attempted that yet.
09/358,746 - FREE ELECTRON CONDENSATION VOLTAGE GAIN DEVICE
09/822,579 - METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ENERGY CONVERSION USING A SCREENED-FREE-ELECTRON SOURCE
PCT/US02/09395 - METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ENERGY CONVERSION USING A SCREENED-FREE-ELECTRON SOURCE
EDIT: it appears that Nelson had a personal website with some more information. Apparently some sections were removed as time passed (perhaps due to coverage on other venues such as PESN). The new website currently leads to a blank page and has been under construction for years. The Web Archive is useful here to access the old content. I couldn't find any direct reference to Ken Shoulders:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050210135239/http://home.comcast.net:80/~nelsonscientific/
https://web.archive.org/web/20…nscientific/contacts.html
EDIT 2: there's a direct reference to Shoulders in the granted (albeit expired) patent:
QuoteThe screening effect used by the present invention exploits an effect similar to that described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,018,180 and 5,123,039 ("the Shoulders patents"), both of which are herein incorporated by reference for all purposes. The electron-screening effect is related to quantum screening that results from vacuum polarization. Vacuum polarization results from vacuum fluctuations in which virtual particles are permitted to exist briefly and then disappear in accordance with the laws of physics--the time of their duration is limited by their total energy and by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle; the total charge is conserved so that charged particles are created and annihilated in charge pairs, e.g. one electron and one positron are created together; and the boundary conditions of the governing quantum-mechanical equation, such as the Dirac equation, are satisfied. The possibility of extracting electrical energy from the vacuum by exploiting the existence of vacuum fluctuations has been shown in R. L. Forward, "Extracting Electrical Energy from the Vacuum by Cohesion of Charged Foliated Conductors," Phys. Rev. B, 30, 1700 (1984).