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Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics

Bit Error Rate measurement of an RSFQ switch by using an automatic error counter

Kim Se Hoon, Kim Jin Young, Baek Seung Hun, Jung Ku Rak, Hahn Taek Sang, Kang Joon Hee

Published Jan 1, 2005• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The problem of fluctuation-induced digital errors in a rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) circuit has been very important issue. So in this experiment, we calculated error rate of RSFQ switch in superconductiyity ALU, The RSFQ switch should have a very low error rate in the optimal bias. We prepared two circuits Placed in parallel. One was a 10 Josephson transmission lines (JTLs) connected in series, and the other was the same circuit but with an RSFQ switch placed in the middle of the 10 JTLs. We used a splitter to feed the same input signal to the both circuits. The outputs of the two circuits were compared with an RSFQ XOR to measure the error rate of the RSFQ switch. By using a computerized bit error rate test setup, we measured the bit error rate of 2.18 when the bias to the RSFQ switch was 0.398mh that was quite off from the optimum bias of 0.6mA.

Related papers

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Several novel circuits of the rapid single-flux-quantum (RSFQ) family of Josephson-junction digital devices have been designed, fabricated using a 2.5- mu m 1000-A/cm/sup 2/ Nb trilayer technology, and tested at low frequencies. Numerical simulation and measurements have shown that these circuits have considerably wider parameter margins, due to application of several novel design methods. The authors have also carried out an experiment to measure the rate of errors in a simple RSFQ circuit including an inverter, confluence buffer, and Josephson transmission line. Near the middle of the parameter window at 4.2 K, the error probability was definitely lower than 3*10/sup -15/ per logic operation, despite experimentation with rudimentary shielding and filtering.>

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A major restriction in the development of a working Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) logic circuit with high-Tc superconductors is given by the influence of thermal noise. This gives reason to ask for a general determination of the digital bit error rate. As other approaches, our method of calculating the switching probability is based on the Fokker-Planck equation. In the past few years the bit error rates for a single Josephson junction, SQUIDs and the comparator were calculated by using this theory. We demonstrate numerical solution of the multidimensional Fokker-Planck equation to calculate bit error rates due to thermal noise for a Toggle Flip Flop circuit. In the present work, we combine thermal noise analysis with the effects of process variations in order to derive rules for designing high-Tc RSFQ logic circuits.

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity•Mar 1, 2001•9 citations
The problem of fluctuation-induced digital errors in a rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) circuit has been very important issue. So in this experiment, we calculated error rate of RSFQ switch in superconductiyity ALU, The RSFQ switch should have a very low error rate in the optimal bias. We prepared two circuits Placed in parallel. One was a 10 Josephson transmission lines (JTLs) connected in series, and the other was the same circuit but with an RSFQ switch placed in the middle of the 10 JTLs. We used a splitter to feed the same input signal to the both circuits. The outputs of the two circuits were compared with an RSFQ XOR to measure the error rate of the RSFQ switch. By using a computerized bit error rate test setup, we measured the bit error rate of 2.18 when the bias to the RSFQ switch was 0.398mh that was quite off from the optimum bias of 0.6mA.
All complex devices in rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) technique work at much lower clock rates than possible for simple cells. New data driven self timed or asynchronous concepts can reduce this gap, but even in this case still a discrepancy between simulation and experiment is shown. It has been pointed out in previous studies, that the influence of thermal fluctuations in RSFQ circuits is divided into static and dynamic switching bit errors as well as timing jitter induced failures. The bit error rate depends exponentially on the temperature and is not the main issue in the low temperature technique. Our last results show for the first time, that the variance of the switching time is much slower decreased by reducing the temperature and is still important at 4.2 K. We describe a general method for calculating the switching time distribution for RSFQ cells. Furthermore, we present detailed results for a timing analysis of a dc/SFQ-converter. The delay between output signal and the input current ramp shows a variation over 1 ps which is more than 10% of the switching time itself. This new understanding of the background of timing jitter enables a goal-oriented improvement in the design process of RSFQ circuits.
Several novel circuits of the rapid single-flux-quantum (RSFQ) family of Josephson-junction digital devices have been designed, fabricated using a 2.5- mu m 1000-A/cm/sup 2/ Nb trilayer technology, and tested at low frequencies. Numerical simulation and measurements have shown that these circuits have considerably wider parameter margins, due to application of several novel design methods. The authors have also carried out an experiment to measure the rate of errors in a simple RSFQ circuit including an inverter, confluence buffer, and Josephson transmission line. Near the middle of the parameter window at 4.2 K, the error probability was definitely lower than 3*10/sup -15/ per logic operation, despite experimentation with rudimentary shielding and filtering.>
We have carried out measurements of bit error rate (BER) of Rapid Single-Flux-Quantum (RSFQ) XOR gates with various nominal dc power supply voltages (from 0.1 V to 1.0 mV), operating at speeds up to 25 GHz. (For these gates, implemented using HYPRES' standard, 3.5-/spl mu/m, 10 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m/sup 2/ Nb-trilayer process, this speed is close to maximum.) A special on-chip RSFQ test circuit allowed high-speed measurements of BER in the range from 10/sup -9/ to 10/sup -13/ to be carried out. As a result of these experiments, a new type of thermal-fluctuation-induced digital errors in RSFQ circuits has been identified. These "timing" errors arise at high speed due to time jitter of data and clock pulses. We have developed a simple theory of these errors which allows a fair description of the experimental data. The theory shows that in some cases the timing errors may be an important factor limiting speed performance of RSFQ circuitry. Nevertheless, our XOR gates could operate at 25 GHz with BER below 10/sup -13/ at the standard temperature (4.2 K) at any dc power supply voltage in our range. For the lowest voltage (0.1 Volt) the calculated static power dissipation in the gate was as low as 23 nanowatts, lower than the unavoidable dynamic dissipation (43 nanowatts).
We propose a simple method of measuring bit error rates (BERs) for rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) circuits operating at high frequencies. An error detector based on a SQUID current comparator, which operates without a timing clock, is employed to simplify the test system and measurements. We successfully investigated high-frequency operation of RSFQ cells that were utilized to implement our RSFQ digital-to-analogue converter for metrology applications. Sufficiently low BERs were demonstrated in the circuit operation at several tens of gigahertz.
We have designed and simulated a circuit for the experimental determination of the rate of dynamic switching errors in high-temperature superconductor RSFQ circuits. The proposal is that a series-connected pair of Josephson junctions is read out by SFQ pulses circulating in a ring-shaped Josephson transmission line at high frequency. Suitable bias currents determine the switching thresholds of the junction pair. By measuring the voltage across the transmission line, it is proposed that the occurrence of a switching error can be detected. The bit error rate can be determined from the mean time before false switching together with the SFQ circulation frequency. The circuit design allows measurements over a wide temperature range.
A major restriction in the development of a working Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) logic circuit with high-Tc superconductors is given by the influence of thermal noise. This gives reason to ask for a general determination of the digital bit error rate. As other approaches, our method of calculating the switching probability is based on the Fokker-Planck equation. In the past few years the bit error rates for a single Josephson junction, SQUIDs and the comparator were calculated by using this theory. We demonstrate numerical solution of the multidimensional Fokker-Planck equation to calculate bit error rates due to thermal noise for a Toggle Flip Flop circuit. In the present work, we combine thermal noise analysis with the effects of process variations in order to derive rules for designing high-Tc RSFQ logic circuits.