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European Microwave Conference (EuMC)

Superconducting MMICs with 1474 Josephson Junctions Providing Standard Voltages up to 1.2 Volt

Johann Heyen Hinken, Jurgen Niemeyer, Richard L. Kautz

Published Oct 1, 1984• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

High precision dc voltage standards utilize microwave induced constant voltage steps occurring due to the ac Josephson effect. Existing standards can be considerably simplified and improved by using a large number of series-connected Josephson tunnel junctions which are operated in the zero current step mode. For this purpose superconducting millimeter wave integrated circuits (MMICs) have been designed, fabricated and tested. The circuits consist of a broadband taper between the waveguide and antipodal fin line, a transition to microstrip, the Josephson junction series, a well-matched load, and dc pads. Circuits with various numbers of junctions have been fabricated by photolithographic techniques and tested at 4.2 K in liquid helium. The version with 1474 junctions produced voltages up to 1.2 V when operated at 90 GHz.

DOI
10.1109/euma.1984.333434

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Applied Physics Letters•Aug 15, 1984•134 citations
High precision dc voltage standards utilize microwave induced constant voltage steps occurring due to the ac Josephson effect. Existing standards can be considerably simplified and improved by using a large number of series-connected Josephson tunnel junctions which are operated in the zero current step mode. For this purpose superconducting millimeter wave integrated circuits (MMICs) have been designed, fabricated and tested. The circuits consist of a broadband taper between the waveguide and antipodal fin line, a transition to microstrip, the Josephson junction series, a well-matched load, and dc pads. Circuits with various numbers of junctions have been fabricated by photolithographic techniques and tested at 4.2 K in liquid helium. The version with 1474 junctions produced voltages up to 1.2 V when operated at 90 GHz.
Josephson voltage standards utilize microwave-induced constant voltage steps occurring due to the ac Josephson effect. Existing standards can be considerably simplified and their accuracy improved by using a large number of series-connected Josephson tunnel junctions which are operated in the zero current step mode. For this purpose superconducting millimeter wave integrated circuits have been designed, fabricated, and tested. The circuits consist of a broadband taper between the rectangular waveguide and the planar structure, the Josephson junction series, a well-matched load, and dc pads. Circuits with various numbers of junctions have been fabricated by photo-lithographic techniques and tested at 4.2 K in liquid helium. The version with 1474 junctions produced voltages up to 1.2 V when operated at 90 GHz.
We have investigated a new type of microwave circuit for the generation of frequency-scaled Josephson voltages useful for the representation of highly accurate reference voltages. The circuit consists of a superconducting microstrip resonator and series arrays of Josephson junctions integrated within its rf current antinodes. The circuit is designed to operate at low frequencies of about 10 GHz to simplify the microwave techniques. At a resonator circuit with four Josephson junctions driven at 10.9 GHz we have obtained stable overlapping Shapiro steps up to 4.6 mV at a step width of about 70 µA. A more advanced double-resonator circuit with altogether 216 junctions allows to generate scaled reference voltages up to 0.16 V at steps of about 25 µA in width and at a microwave frequency of 11.1 GHz.
A new type of microwave circuit for the generation of frequency-scaled voltages is investigated. The circuit is designed as a superconducting microstrip line resonator and series arrays of Josephson tunnel junctions located within the rf current antinodes. The circuits are designed to obtain highly accurate voltages at low rf power level and low frequencies of about 10 GHz. For a resonator circuit with 432 junctions driven at about 10 GHz we have observed steps up to 0.25 V, the lifetime of which is about 20 minutes.>
The authors report on the design and operation of a superconducting microstrip resonator containing four series-connected highly hysteretic Josephson junctions in the top layer. This arrangement generates constant-voltage steps at X-band drive frequencies useful for a Josephson voltage standard. At 12 GHz, steps up to 5 mV have been obtained with step amplitudes of about 100 mu A. The resonator principle can be used to save microwave power and to simplify the microwave circuit. To obtain sufficiently large and stable steps the critical current density and the junction length must be matched carefully with the order of maximum step used for the operation of the Josephson voltage standard. The X-band microwave drive frequencies offer substantial advantages in terms of costs and handling of microwave equipment.>