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International Conference Radioelektronika

Superconducting NbN band-pass filter and matching circuit for 30 GHz RSFQ data converter

Vratislav Michal, Sophie Bouat, Jean-Claude Villégier, Jioi Sedlacek

Published Apr 1, 2009• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present the planar microwave filters developed as the front selective and impedance matching circuit for the RSFQ based (Rapid Single Flux Quantum) A/D converters, operating at cryogenic temperature (T = 9 K). The structures are to be patterned in thin NbN (niobium nitride) superconducting films with critical temperature T ap 16 K. The filter design is experimentally verified at lower frequency (f0= 5 GHz, microstrip) on the Ro3006 substrate. During the design, we aim to reach high stopband attenuation and matching of different input - output impedances. The filters use high impedance level in order to obtain suitable dimensions of the lines, important for the final accuracy. A layout of 1 cm2NbN filter designed for f0= 30 GHz and CPW is presented. This NbN filter is intended for the extraction of parameters such as kinetic inductance or London penetration depth, in order to improve the simulation accuracy of our NbN process.

DOI
10.1109/radioelek.2009.5158787

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Softwaretechnik-Trends•Mar 1, 1995•1 citation
We present the planar microwave filters developed as the front selective and impedance matching circuit for the RSFQ based (Rapid Single Flux Quantum) A/D converters, operating at cryogenic temperature (T = 9 K). The structures are to be patterned in thin NbN (niobium nitride) superconducting films with critical temperature T ap 16 K. The filter design is experimentally verified at lower frequency (f0= 5 GHz, microstrip) on the Ro3006 substrate. During the design, we aim to reach high stopband attenuation and matching of different input - output impedances. The filters use high impedance level in order to obtain suitable dimensions of the lines, important for the final accuracy. A layout of 1 cm2NbN filter designed for f0= 30 GHz and CPW is presented. This NbN filter is intended for the extraction of parameters such as kinetic inductance or London penetration depth, in order to improve the simulation accuracy of our NbN process.
In recent years, rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) circuits, which are promising for the development of high-speed digital electronics, have attracted widespread interest. Niobium nitride (NbN) films have also attracted significant attention for high-frequency applications in superconducting electronics because of their superior material parameters, including their high critical temperature Tc and large gap voltage Vg. To enable the development of all-NbN SFQ circuits, we have developed a fabrication process based on NbN junctions and inductors made of NbN strip lines. It is important to evaluate the inductance because it can affect the performance of an RSFQ circuit and is essential for the RSFQ design. We measured the inductance properties of both epitaxial and polycrystalline NbN strip lines using a superconducting quantum interference device modulation technique at 4.2 K and obtained the width dependence on the inductance of the NbN films. The penetration depth was then calculated from these measurements. The NbN inductance values were calculated numerically with respect to the penetration depth and were then compared with the measured values from the experiments. It was demonstrated that the differences between these values were within 5%. The results reported here will be useful for the design and fabrication of all-NbN RSFQ circuits.
We have fabricated both NbN/Ta x N/NbN SN*S-type, NbN/MgO/NbN SIS-type Josephson junctions and microwave band-pass filters on different substrates (Si, Sapphire, MgO). NbN films have been deposited on both sides of (100) oriented, 250 µm thick, MgO substrates with a high crystalline texture quality. The aim was to investigate the performances and the maximum achievable operating frequency in an NbN based RSFQ modulator front-end of an ADC in the 4 K-10 K temperature range. We observed that Ta x N thin films can be tuned from an insulating phase to a superconducting phase (Tc ∼4K) by varying the nitrogen content during sputter deposition while the barrier height of MgO can also be controlled by deposition conditions and by tri-layer postdeposition annealing. Junction properties (Jc∼10-25 kA/cm 2 ), Mac Cumber parameter and RnIc product measured up to 1 mV are shown to be controlled by the reactive sputtering conditions. We have designed three pole band-pass filters and resonators in a micro-strip configuration and studied the junction coupling with the filters. We will show that a sigma-delta NbN technology is a suitable solution for analogue-to-digital conversion in the future generations of telecommunication satellites to achieve high sampling frequency and large bandwidth at high carrier frequency signal.
In the future generations of telecommunication satellites, it will be necessary to reduce the analog part in reception systems and achieve RF front-end at higher carrier frequencies with higher sensitivity and higher bandwidth. RSFQ (Rapid Single Flux Quantum) superconducting logic is suitable to process very high speed digital data processing with very low power dissipation and with performances well beyond what should be possible with CMOS technology in the next decades. The RSFQ circuit technology based on superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) presently developed at CEA-G involves NbN/Ta(sub X)N/NbN internally shunted Josephson junctions with high critical current density and high maximum switching frequency close to 1THz, as required by ultra-fast RSFQ electronics. Very low power dissipation and very low noise level of fast NbN RSFQ gates designed and fabricated at CEA-G are presented. The RSFQ circuit for a sampling comparator has been studied operating in a sigma-delta modulator with a 30 GHz sinusoidal input carrier signal and high sampling clock frequency of about 200 GHz. We will present the thermal noise and how it influences the phase fluctuations. Such a nitride technology has been recently demonstrated to be fully compatible with large scale integration on 200 mm diameter silicon wafer at reasonable fabrication cost in a micro-nano-electronic platform at CEA-Leti. The applicability of NbN RSFQ digital functions in the next decade Space Telecoms will finally be possible thanks to the development of reliable, low power consuming, space qualified cryocoolers operating at about 10K. Moreover semiconductor system design and integration techniques can be simply adapted to superconductivity, to fit the rules of any RSFQ library-foundry network, such as "CONNECT" for Japan and "FLUXONICS" for Europe.
A planar superconducting circuit designed for use in low-noise cryogenic applications is presented. The circuit is a bias-T combined with a 4–8 GHz impedance matching circuitry, which employs entirely planar design with a novel layout. The proposed and tested circuitry is intended to be used with a SIS mixer and incorporates a double section transformer based on microstrip line technology with a total impedance transformation of 5:1 within the frequency band. One of the transformer sections employs a three-line coupled line, which also serves as a DC block capacitor. The microstrip lines were manufactured using superconducting Nb metallization, which provides a conduction loss-free solution at the operation temperature of 4 K. S-parameter measurements at 4 K temperature were performed and found to be in a good agreement with the simulations. The device measured return loss is better than −10 dB within the frequency band. Furthermore, the circuit was tested as a part of 385 – 500 GHz double sideband heterodyne SIS receiver demonstrating a flat noise temperature response of 80 – 90 K over the entire IF band of 4 – 8 GHz.
An ultra-wide stopband hairpin bandpass filter with integrated nonuniform transmission lines was designed and fabricated for highly sensitive measurements at cryogenic temperatures down to millikelvin and a frequency range of 10 Hz-10 GHz. The scattering matrices of the filter were characterized at T = 4.2 K. The filter provides a stopband from 10 Hz to 2.2 GHz and from 2.3 GHz to 10 GHz with more than 50 dB and 40 dB of amplitude suppression, respectively. The center frequency of the passband is f0 = 2.25 GHz with a bandwidth Δf = 80 MHz. The maximum insertion loss in the passband is 4 dB. The filter has a 50 Ω input and output impedance, SubMiniature version A connector termination, and significantly reduced form factor. The wide stopband frequency range and narrow passband in conjunction with small dimensions make the filter suitable to use it as a part of a high sensitive readout for superconducting quantum circuits, such as superconducting quantum bits and cryogenic parametric amplifiers.
At frequencies above the gap frequency of niobium (710 GHz), the performance of Nb/A10x/Nb SIS mixers degrades and the losses in the niobium films of the superconductive Nb/SiO/Nb microstrip circuits used to provide a good RF impedance match severely limit the performance. Therefore, we are investigating the properties of NbN mixers, and in particular of NbN/SiO/NbN microstrip circuits integrated with submicron IlbN/Mg0/NbN tunnel junctions. The very large penetration depth of NbN (3000-4000 A) makes the circuit design difficult and also puts critical constraints on alignment during fabrication. We present here the design of several rf tuning circuits for 630 GHz including novel symmetric designs which ease the alignment tolerances. In addition, a new approach for determining experimentally the penetration depth in the NbN films is presented.