This review is devoted to a discussion of the prospects for solving the problem of a low degree of integration of the traditional elements for promising (due to the high performance and extremely low energy dissipation) superconducting digital electronics. We define three main directions on the path to compact multi-element Josephson electronic systems: (1) reduction of the Josephson junction to submicron size, (2) decrease of the area of standard logic cells, and (3) fabrication of a compact and rapid Josephson memory. We present the physical foundations of Josephson elements in order to show the fundamental constraints on establishing standard submicron tunnel contacts and compact logic cells/memory elements. This survey clearly demonstrates the essence of breakthrough technological solutions to create ultrasmall heterostructures with desired settings, reduce and optimize logic cells, and create memory unit cells based on Josephson junctions with magnetic layers.
This review is devoted to a discussion of the prospects for solving the problem of a low degree of integration of the traditional elements for promising (due to the high performance and extremely low energy dissipation) superconducting digital electronics. We define three main directions on the path to compact multi-element Josephson electronic systems: (1) reduction of the Josephson junction to submicron size, (2) decrease of the area of standard logic cells, and (3) fabrication of a compact and rapid Josephson memory. We present the physical foundations of Josephson elements in order to show the fundamental constraints on establishing standard submicron tunnel contacts and compact logic cells/memory elements. This survey clearly demonstrates the essence of breakthrough technological solutions to create ultrasmall heterostructures with desired settings, reduce and optimize logic cells, and create memory unit cells based on Josephson junctions with magnetic layers.
The lack of dense, fast, energy efficient memory has been the main detractor for multiple superconducting digital projects in the past. Recently, fundamental physics research in superconductor-ferromagnet thin-film tunnel structures created a new opportunity to solve this long-standing problem. Superconductivity and ferromagnetism, two deeply antagonistic electronic properties, can co-exist in form of Magnetic Josephson Junctions (MJJs). The superconducting-ferromagnetic MJJs are electrically compatible with traditional superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) Josephson junctions (JJs) used for digital energy-efficient single flux quantum (eSFQ/ERSFQ) circuits. Both MJJ and JJ circuits have similar fabrication process and can be integrated on a single chip. As a result, a combination of MJJs and JJs can be used to form addressable memory cells, energy-efficient memory periphery circuits and programmable logic elements. In this paper, we present the test results of superconductor-insulator-ferromagnet-superconductor (SIFS) MJJs showing their applicability for superconducting spintronic memory and digital circuits.
Arrays of vortex transitional (VT) memory cells with functional density up to 1 Mbit/cm2have been designed, fabricated, and successfully demonstrated. This progress is due to recent advances in design optimization and in superconductor electronics fabrication achieved at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. As a starting point, we developed a demo array of VT cells for the 100-μA/μm2MIT LL fabrication process SFQ5ee with eight niobium layers. The studied two-junction memory cell with a two-junction nondestructive readout occupied 168 μm2, resulting in an over 0.5 Mbit/cm2functional density. Then, we reduced the cell area down to 99 μm2(corresponding to over 0.9 Mbit/cm2functional density) by utilizing self-shunted Josephson junctions (JJs) with critical current density JC of 600 μA/μm2and eliminating shunt resistors. The fabricated high-JC memory cells were fully operational and possessed wide read/write current margins, quite close to the theoretically predicted values. We discuss approaches to further increasing the integration scale of superconductor memory and logic circuits: 1) miniaturization of superconducting transformers by using soft magnetic materials; and 2) reduction of JJ area by using planar high-JC junctions similar to variable thickness bridges.
Flux quantum logic and memory circuits using superconducting Josephson tunnel junctions have high-speed switching times (approximately 1 ps), low power dissipation (< 1 (mu) W per circuit) and low levels of thermally induced electrical noise. Current designs of such circuits employ single trilayer junctions, which impose circuit size and logic threshold limitations. A new design component, the multilayered tunnel junction, consists of a vertically stacked array (a 1D superlattice) of Josephson tunnel junctions. The introduction of multilayered junctions into superconducting electronic circuitry offers a reduction in the current device size, fault tolerances, and new device applications. We present numerical simulations of simple circuits employing multilayered Josephson junctions as design components. Comparison with conventional single flux quantum circuitry is discussed. We also present preliminary measurements of multilayered Josephson junctions fabricated for use in flux quantum devices.
The Josephson junction (JJ) is the fundamental nonlinear building block of superconducting quantum technologies. Its macroscopic quantum tunneling physics underpins superconducting quantum computing, sensing, and communication, but scaling these platforms to utility-scale architectures places increasingly stringent demands on junction materials, interfaces, and fabrication. Practical quantum computing requires high reproducibility, low power consumption, tunability, a small device footprint, and resilience to noise and defects. This review surveys how advances in materials science, device characterization, and nanofabrication are addressing these challenges and redefining the figures of merit for next-generation JJs. This review also examines the evolution of fabrication strategies, from conventional multi-angle evaporation to foundry-compatible superconducting processes and the integration of emerging junction materials. Progress along these directions will determine how rapidly JJs move from laboratory-scale components to the foundation of industrial-scale quantum processors.
Using of traditional logic elements in digital electronics has ensured the development of a wide range of electronic devices for many years. In parallel, research and development of logical elements are carried out on the basis of other non-traditional physical phenomena or effects, in particular logic elements based on the phenomenon of superconductivity, the prospect of which is the use of very small energy consumption and ultrahigh performance. For superconducting logic elements, using various Josephson cryoelectronic structures, known as Josephson cryotrons, based on the stationary and non-stationary effects of Josephson. On the basis of the Josephson cryotrons, one can create Josephson elements of computer memory, and Josephson elements of digital logic. The main requirements for the Josephson cryotrons are a stable operating mode and high speed or short switching time. Information about the mode of operation and the speed give us the transition characteristics of the cryotrons - the time dependence of the voltage on the cryotron while changing its logical state, which can be obtained either experimentally, or theoretically. This work aims at a search for new ways of increasing the switching rate of digital logical operators by employing physical structures other than the traditional semiconductor-based schemes. We propose the principles of designing digital logical operators based on Josephson cryotrons, whose operation utilizes the stationary and dynamical Josephson effects, and describe the operational principles of the logical elements “AND” and “OR” bases on tunneling Josephson junctions “superconductor-insulator-superconductor”. Our proposed mathematical models for the commutation processes in such logical elements allowed us to calculate their transition characteristics during the switching and to determine the main parameters in such models. It was shown that the logical elements “AND” and “OR” can be implemented on individual cryotrons and that their logical state can be controlled by input signals in a form of current pulses. Such logical elements meet all the requirements for digital logical elements and have switching time of about 2-3 ps, which indicates their significantly increased switching rate.
The goal of this program is to explore advanced alternatives to the standard approaches to memory in Josephson junction digital electronics. The work includes the physics, circuits and systems aspects of the problem. It is widely recognized that memory is the weak suit of digital superconductive electronics. There are several problems. They are hard to build, particularly at high densities. Their speed is being challenged by leading edge semiconductor memories, albeit at the expense of high power dissipation. They are susceptible to trapped flux, which is both random in space and likely varying in time. All the current approaches to memory are based on the concept of storage of magnetic flux in a superconducting ring first proposed over 25 years ago by Anacker. Basically, there have been no new ideas in superconductive memory since that time.