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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Measurement of inductive coupling between coplanar superconducting transmission lines

J. Klockau, Gerhard Fotheringham, Robert Hahn

Published Mar 1, 1996• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

By measuring forward and backward coupling between superconducting coplanar transmission lines at various temperatures, we determined the dependence of inductive coupling on the London penetration depth. If the transmission lines are separated by a shielding ground line, inductive coupling increases with increasing penetration depth. If the shielding line is damaged or absent, there is a slight decrease. Since both effects are in the percentage range, they can only be observed in the forward-coupled noise signal. The backward coupled noise is nearly temperature independent. We measured inductive coupling factors between 6 and 8% on 10- and 5-/spl mu/m-wide transmission lines, which are separated by a shielding ground line. Excellent agreement was obtained between measurements and FEM simulations.

DOI
10.1109/77.488273

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By measuring forward and backward coupling between superconducting coplanar transmission lines at various temperatures, we determined the dependence of inductive coupling on the London penetration depth. If the transmission lines are separated by a shielding ground line, inductive coupling increases with increasing penetration depth. If the shielding line is damaged or absent, there is a slight decrease. Since both effects are in the percentage range, they can only be observed in the forward-coupled noise signal. The backward coupled noise is nearly temperature independent. We measured inductive coupling factors between 6 and 8% on 10- and 5-/spl mu/m-wide transmission lines, which are separated by a shielding ground line. Excellent agreement was obtained between measurements and FEM simulations.
Superconducting planar circuits possess properties that can be very different from their normal-metal counterparts, which makes modeling efforts more complicated for superconducting components. In this paper we present closed-form expressions for the resistance and internal inductance per unit length of superconducting planar transmission lines in terms of the relevant material parameters. We also include a simple calculation of the nonlinear response of superconducting devices based on a current-dependent superconducting penetration depth. Taken together, these two descriptions can be used to predict the linear and nonlinear response of superconducting planar devices in a manner that is conducive to use in circuit design. The results of these calculations compare well with 76 K measurements of coplanar waveguide transmission lines and resonators fabricated from thin films of the high T/sub c/ superconductor YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-/spl delta//.
Data are presented on mutual and self-inductance of various inductors used in multilayered superconductor integrated circuits: microstrips and striplines with widths from 250 nm to a few micrometers, located on the same layer at various distances from each other, from 250 nm to a few micrometers, and/or on different layers spaced vertically; effect of long slits in the ground plane(s) along the inductors on their mutual inductance; inductance of right-angled bends; and inductance of meanders. Measurements were done using circuits fabricated in the SFQ5ee and the SC1 fully planarized fabrication processes with eight niobium layers and Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions, developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory for superconductor electronics. Simple analytical expressions for mutual and self-inductance of the basic inductors are given, describing experimental data with accuracy better than 2% over a very wide range of parameters. Mutual coupling between microstrips is long-ranged and decreases as a second power of distance between them, making microstrips unsuitable for very large scale integrated circuits. Mutual inductance of striplines decreases exponentially with distance between them on a scale of(H+2λ)/π({\boldsymbol{H}} + 2{\boldsymbol{\lambda }})/{\boldsymbol{\pi }}(H+2λ)/π∼ 0.3 μm, whereH{\boldsymbol{H}}Handλ{\boldsymbol{\lambda }}λare, respectively, the distance between and magnetic field penetration depth in superconducting ground planes, whereas superconducting properties of the signal traces are practically irrelevant. This decay distance determines the scale of integration above which adjacent inductors in a circuit become strongly coupled. Dependence of mutual inductance on the linewidth of wires is weak. As a result, the area of flux transformers—an essential component of all superconductor digital circuits using ac power, qubits, and sensor arrays—scales poorly with the linewidth, potentially restricting scalability of the circuits.
An analytical expression for the kinetic inductance of the superconducting coplanar waveguide is given using the conformal mapping technique. This expression is shown to be in good agreement with experimental results obtained from the temperature dependence of the resonant frequency of the NbN coplanar waveguide resonators, especially in the case of a film thickness smaller than the magnetic penetration depth. It is also shown that the magnetic penetration depth of the superconducting thin films can be evaluated by this method.
We present the RF characterization of 2-µm-wide superconducting coplanar waveguides made of 100-nm-thick niobium (Nb) or niobium nitride (NbN) films fabricated on 200 mm silicon wafers. Measurements of the two-ports S-parameters up to 25 GHz in a 4.7K–14 K temperature range with an added direct current up to 115 mA were done using a cryogenic probe station. With proper RF calibration and de-embedding procedure, both temperature and dc current dependence of the RF superconducting properties are analyzed. We report a kinetic inductance of 0.15 pH/□\square□, a critical current density of 50 MA/cm2^{2}2, and a critical temperature of 8.9 K for Nb as well as 4.27 pH/□\square□, 3 MA/cm2^{2}2, and 13.8 K for NbN. A telegraphist transmission line model taking into account the BCS theory has been developed and the comparison with the measurements is discussed.
Abstract In this paper, we report on a systematic study of the inductance and magnetic field penetration depth (λ) of polycrystalline NbN superconducting thin films. By employing a four-metal-layer fabrication process specifically designed for all-NbN single-flux-quantum circuits, we constructed a superconducting quantum interference device loop composed of two parallel NbN SNS junctions, NbN microstrips, and NbN ground planes for precise inductance measurement. At 4.2 K, as the linewidth increases from 1 μm to 30 μm, the inductance per unit length (L u) of NbN microstrips significantly decreases, for example, the L u of 250 nm thick NbN microstrips drops from 0.907 pH/μm to 0.047 pH/μm. Compared to Nb, the L u of polycrystalline NbN microstrips is approximately two to three times that of Nb, offering an advantage for manufacturing smaller superconducting inductors. Furthermore, we conducted simulation analysis using InductEx software to extract the λ of NbN films of varying thicknesses. The results indicate that as the film thickness increased from 45 nm to 600 nm, λ initially decreased sharply and then stabilized, with values ranging from 430 nm to 323 nm. Notably, once the film thickness exceeded 200 nm, λ remained essentially constant, even at a temperature of 10 K, where it showed good stability, albeit with a slight increase (about 50 nm) compared to 4.2 K. This dependence of λ on thickness is reasonably explained by considering the effects of NbN film thickness on the superconducting critical temperature and residual resistivity. These research findings not only deepen our understanding of the characteristics of superconducting films but also lay a solid foundation for the future design and manufacture of more compact superconducting circuits at the higher temperature of 10 K.
Superconducting microstrip resonators, which leverage kinetic inductance to probe electrodynamics, are sensitive tools for studying superconducting thin films at microwave frequencies. However, extracting the absolute superconducting penetration depth from these measurements remains challenging. In this work, we present a hybrid method to determine the absolute value of penetration depth over a wide temperature range by combining resonator measurements with finite-element electromagnetic simulations in COMSOL Multiphysics. We demonstrate this approach by extracting the penetration depth of NbN films by fabricating resonators from films of various thicknesses. Furthermore, we extend the technique to materials with lower critical temperatures by employing a flip-film geometry. By placing a sample above a NbN resonator, separated by a thin Mylar dielectric, we create a coupled structure where changes in the sample's penetration depth shift the resonant frequency. This non-destructive method provides a reliable, high-sensitivity platform for characterizing the penetration depth of diverse superconducting thin films.