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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Digital logic gates using hot-phonon controlled superconducting nanotransistors

Seung‐Beck Lee, G. D. Hutchinson, D. G. Hasko, D.A. Williams, H. Ahmed

Published Jun 1, 2003• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe the fabrication and digital switching operation of a NOR logic gate that uses a single, dual-input superconducting nanotransistor. The nanotransistor is a weak-link device that has integrated hot-phonon injectors to control its critical current. The fabrication process utilizes a self-aligned method, where the two heaters act as a mask for reactive ion etching to define the device pattern. This device is much simpler to fabricate than previously reported superconducting transistors and the principle of operation makes it possible to use a single nanotransistor, with multiple input heaters, as a NOR logic gate, allowing lower power consumption and improved levels of integration.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2003.814166

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We describe the fabrication and digital switching operation of a NOR logic gate that uses a single, dual-input superconducting nanotransistor. The nanotransistor is a weak-link device that has integrated hot-phonon injectors to control its critical current. The fabrication process utilizes a self-aligned method, where the two heaters act as a mask for reactive ion etching to define the device pattern. This device is much simpler to fabricate than previously reported superconducting transistors and the principle of operation makes it possible to use a single nanotransistor, with multiple input heaters, as a NOR logic gate, allowing lower power consumption and improved levels of integration.
We describe the fabrication and digital logic operation of superconducting nanotransistors. The nanotransistor is a superconducting weak-link device that has integrated hot-phonon injector heaters to control its switching critical current. The fabrication process utilizes a self-aligned method, where the heater acts as a mask for reactive ion etching to define the device pattern. This device is much simpler to fabricate than previously reported controllable superconducting transistors and the principle of operation makes it possible to use a single nanotransistor connected to a load resistor as a NOT logic gate, allowing lower power consumption and improved levels of integration.
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The direct current superconducting quantum interference device (DC-SQUID), using controlled Josephson junction technology, provides a mechanism to modify the characteristics of the device post-fabrication. We report on the fabrication and measurement of a micron sized DC-SQUID using two Dayem bridge weak-link Josephson junctions with integrated “heaters.” The weak link critical current is controlled by hot phonons from the current biased titanium, normal metal heater. By using the heaters, control over the critical current oscillations of the SQUID was observed at 4.2K.
Superconducting nanowire logic device is a new type of the cryogenic digital logic device. It has a series of characteristics such as fast speed, low power consumption, high gain, stable driving ability and simple fabrication process. It can be used to design superconducting digital circuits. In this paper, The ‘and/or’ basic logic gate structure is designed based on superconducting nanowires and a fabrication scheme of the device is developed based on micro-processing equipment. After building the system test circuit, the function of the ‘and’ gate and ‘or’ gate operating at 10 MHz frequency is verified.
We report on a novel method of controlling the supercurrent flow in a superconducting weaklink. We have fabricated a free-standing superconducting nanobridge with an integrated NiCr heater. This NiCr layer acts as a self-aligned mask for reactive ion etching and also as the normal metal heating element of the nanobridge. The heater is used to control the critical current of the superconducting weaklink part of the nanobridge; the free-standing nature of the nanobridge reduces the heater power required. We discuss the dependence of the current–voltage characteristics of the superconducting weaklink on heater current. This device has advantages over existing controllable weaklink devices.