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IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

Signal processing: Opportunities for superconductive circuits

Richard W. Ralston

Published Mar 1, 1985• 16 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Prime motivators in the evolution of increasingly sophisticated communication and detection systems are the needs for handling ever wider signal bandwidths and higher data processing speeds. These same needs drive the development of electronic device technology. Until recently the superconductive community has been tightly focused on digital devices for high speed computers. The purpose of this paper is to describe opportunities and challenges which exist for both analog and digital devices in a less familiar area, that of wideband signal processing. The function and purpose of analog signal-processing components, including matched filters, correlators and Fourier transformers, will be described and examples of superconductive implementations given. A canonic signal-processing system is then configured using these components in combination with analog/digital converters and digital output circuits to highlight the important issues of dynamic range, accuracy and equivalent computation rate. Superconductive circuits hold promise for processing signals of 10-GHz bandwidth. Signal processing systems, however, can be properly designed and implemented only through a synergistic combination of the talents of device physicists, circuit designers, algorithm architects and system engineers. An immediate challenge to the applied superconductivity community is to begin sharing ideas with these other researchers.

DOI
10.1109/tmag.1985.1063646

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Concepts for realizing superconductive convolvers capable of processing analog signals having bandwidths up to 10 GHz have been developed and are being implemented. A preliminary convolver structure with 19 taps and a 14-ns interaction length has recently been demonstrated. This device employs a superconductive transmission line as a low-loss delay element and superconductive tunnel junctions as nonlinear mixing elements. The niobium delay line provides the relative shifting of signal and reference waveforms, niobium/niobium-oxide/lead mixers with proximity taps provide local multiplication of the two waveforms, and a short output transmission line provides coherent summation of the local products. The principles of device operation, design tradeoffs and experimental results will be presented. Convolvers can provide the essential programmable matched-filter component for extremely wide-bandwidth spread-spectrum communication systems. It appears feasible to produce a convolver with an interaction time of about 100 ns and signal processing gains of up to 1000. This superconductive analog device offers the potential of providing a real-time programmable signal processing function with the digital equivalent of about 1012operations/sec.