Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Simulation and 18 Gb/s testing of a data-driven self-timed RSFQ demultiplexer

Nobuyuki Yoshikawa, Z.J. Deng, Stephen R. Whiteley, T. Van Duzer

Published Jun 1, 1999• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have developed a data-driven self-timed (DDST) rapid-single-flux-quantum (RSFQ) demultiplexer (demux) for the interface between on-chip high-speed RSFQ circuits and off-chip low-speed circuits. In order to eliminate the timing issue in a synchronous clocking system we employed the DDST architecture, where a clock signal is localized within a 2-bit basic demux module and dual rail lines are used to transfer the timing information between the modules. A larger demux can be produced simply by connecting the 2-bit modules in a tree structure. The DDST demux was designed for 10 Gb/s operation with sufficient dc bias margin using HYPRES 1 kA/cm/sup 2/ Nb process. We have successfully tested operation of the 2-bit demux up to 18 GHz using the DDST on-chip high-speed test system which was developed in our group.

DOI
10.1109/77.783988

Related papers

RSFQ multiplexer and demultiplexer

L Zheng, Nobuyuki Yoshikawa, Jiaqi Deng +3 more

An 1:8 RSFQ demultiplexer (DEMUX) and an 8:1 RSFQ multiplexer (MUX) were designed, simulated and optimized to operate at about 20 GHz. Both the inputs and outputs of the DEMUX are complementary dual-rail signals. The basic 2-bit DEMUX module is a self-clocked dual-rail T flip-flop. This DEMUX has a simpler structure than an earlier version of a data-driven-self-timed (DDST) DEMUX developed in our laboratory; however its simulated dc bias margin is (-20%, +20%), which is lower than the more complex device (-29%, +29%). The MUX takes lower data rate single-rail inputs and combines them sequentially into a single output. The complementary output is recovered from the output itself to facilitate interfacing to other dual-rail circuits on chip. The calculated dc bias margin is (-30 %, +28%). Circuit functionality is verified for the 2-bit MUX and the 2-bit DEMUX at low speed. An on-chip high-speed test system is designed to evaluate operation of the MUX and DEMUX at 20 GHz. The circuits are fabricated using a 1 kA/cm/sup 2/ niobium process at both UCB and HYPRES.

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity•Jun 1, 1999•18 citations

Data-driven self-timed RSFQ digital integrated circuit and system

Z.J. Deng, Nobuyuki Yoshikawa, Stephen R. Whiteley +1 more

A novel asynchronous timing scheme, data-driven self-timing (DDST) is proposed and implemented in Rapid Single-Flux-Quantum (RSFQ) superconductive integrated circuits. In this asynchronous approach, the timing signals are generated from the data and no global clock is needed to drive the RSFQ circuit and system. The essence of the self-timing scheme is to localize the system timing in order to avoid the overhead of global clock distribution, and to minimize the timing uncertainty. The DDST scheme has been applied to the design of a shift register, a demultiplexor, and a self-timed high speed digital test system. In this paper, test results of a 4-bit DDST shift register and a high speed on-chip clock generator will be presented to demonstrate the successful DDST operation of RSFQ integrated circuits at a rate of 20 Gb/s.

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity•Jun 1, 1997•104 citations

Design and operation of a rapid single flux quantum demultiplexer

Masaaki Maezawa, Motohiro Suzuki, Akira Shoji

A demultiplexer (DMUX) is a key subsystem of rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) circuits and systems in practical applications. High-speed data from RSFQ circuits should be converted into sufficiently low-speed ones for transmission to and processing by room temperature electronics. We designed, fabricated and successfully tested an RSFQ DMUX based on the synchronous shift-and-dump architecture whose advantages are modularity and compactness. A 1-to-8 DMUX was implemented using our standard cell library on 1.6 kA cm −2 Nb trilayer technology. Fully functional operation was confirmed by low speed testing. Experimental bias margins were as large as ±16%. Results of average voltage measurements implied that the DMUX was operated at data rates up to 25 Gb s −1 .

Superconductor Science and Technology•Nov 21, 2002•3 citations

High-speed operation of demultiplexer up to 56 GHz

Futoshi Furuta, K. Saitoh, Kazumasa Takagi

A 1-to-4 demultiplexer (DEMUX) was designed based on Single Flux Quantum (SFQ) circuitry and high-speed operation was confirmed using on-chip testing. The circuit was designed with a binary-tree structure to enable high-speed operation. We also investigated timing between clock and data signals in detail. Monte Carlo simulation was applied to vary the design parameters pseudo-randomly and the spread of timing was obtained by circuit simulation. Even if the circuit parameters varied as a result of the fabrication process, proper timing was maintained by optimizing the length of Josephson transmission line. The 1-to-4 DEMUX we fabricated distributed data signals correctly at operating frequencies up to 56 GHz with a bias margin of /spl plusmn/7%.

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity•Jun 1, 2003•10 citations

Asynchronous circuits and systems in superconducting RSFQ digital technology

Z.J. Deng, Nobuyuki Yoshikawa, J. Tierno +2 more

Superconductive Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) logic and memory, in which ones and zeros are represented by the presence or absence within a timing window of quantized picosecond voltage pulse (/spl int/v(t)dt=h/2e=2.07 mV/spl middot/ps), corresponding to one SFQ, can be integrated into a digital computing system with an operating rate of several tens of GHz, based on the present Nb Josephson junction integrated circuit technology. It is the most promising technology beyond semiconductor transistors for low-power high-end computation. However, as the operating speed of circuits and systems increase, timing uncertainty from fabrication process variations makes global synchronization very hard. In this paper, we present a globally asynchronous, locally synchronous timing methodology for RSFQ digital design, which can solve the global synchronization problem. We also demonstrate the recent experimental results of some asynchronous circuits and systems implemented in RSFQ technology. Several key components such as a self-timed shift register, a self-timed demultiplexor, a Muller-C element, a completion detector, and a clock generator have been designed and tested. High speed operation has been confirmed up to 20 Gb/s for a prototype data buffer system, which consists two self-timed shift registers and an on-chip 5-38 GHz clock generator.

IEEE International Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems (ASYNC)•Nov 27, 2002•7 citations

Design and component test of SFQ shift register memories

K. Fujiwara, H. Hoshina, Y. Yamashiro +1 more

The lack of a high-density and high-speed memory is a serious impediment for realization of large-scale RSFQ digital systems. A shift resister memory, which has high throughput and simple circuit structure, is one candidate to overcome this drawback. We show a design framework of the shift register memory, which is usable for the high-speed register files and the main memories of the RSFQ microprocessor. The proposed system consists of an array of shift registers and a packet decoder that switches a high-speed serial data stream into the specified shift register. The target clock frequency is 16 GHz assuming 2.5 kA/cm/sup 2/ Nb standard process. We have estimated the propagation delay and the circuit area of the data-driven self-timed (DDST) packet decoder. Based on this estimation, we have also evaluated the access time and the area of the memory system. Several key components, including the one-to-two packet switch and the one-to-four DDST packet decoder, were implemented and their correct operations were confirmed.

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity•Jun 1, 2003•14 citations
We have developed a data-driven self-timed (DDST) rapid-single-flux-quantum (RSFQ) demultiplexer (demux) for the interface between on-chip high-speed RSFQ circuits and off-chip low-speed circuits. In order to eliminate the timing issue in a synchronous clocking system we employed the DDST architecture, where a clock signal is localized within a 2-bit basic demux module and dual rail lines are used to transfer the timing information between the modules. A larger demux can be produced simply by connecting the 2-bit modules in a tree structure. The DDST demux was designed for 10 Gb/s operation with sufficient dc bias margin using HYPRES 1 kA/cm/sup 2/ Nb process. We have successfully tested operation of the 2-bit demux up to 18 GHz using the DDST on-chip high-speed test system which was developed in our group.
An 1:8 RSFQ demultiplexer (DEMUX) and an 8:1 RSFQ multiplexer (MUX) were designed, simulated and optimized to operate at about 20 GHz. Both the inputs and outputs of the DEMUX are complementary dual-rail signals. The basic 2-bit DEMUX module is a self-clocked dual-rail T flip-flop. This DEMUX has a simpler structure than an earlier version of a data-driven-self-timed (DDST) DEMUX developed in our laboratory; however its simulated dc bias margin is (-20%, +20%), which is lower than the more complex device (-29%, +29%). The MUX takes lower data rate single-rail inputs and combines them sequentially into a single output. The complementary output is recovered from the output itself to facilitate interfacing to other dual-rail circuits on chip. The calculated dc bias margin is (-30 %, +28%). Circuit functionality is verified for the 2-bit MUX and the 2-bit DEMUX at low speed. An on-chip high-speed test system is designed to evaluate operation of the MUX and DEMUX at 20 GHz. The circuits are fabricated using a 1 kA/cm/sup 2/ niobium process at both UCB and HYPRES.
A novel asynchronous timing scheme, data-driven self-timing (DDST) is proposed and implemented in Rapid Single-Flux-Quantum (RSFQ) superconductive integrated circuits. In this asynchronous approach, the timing signals are generated from the data and no global clock is needed to drive the RSFQ circuit and system. The essence of the self-timing scheme is to localize the system timing in order to avoid the overhead of global clock distribution, and to minimize the timing uncertainty. The DDST scheme has been applied to the design of a shift register, a demultiplexor, and a self-timed high speed digital test system. In this paper, test results of a 4-bit DDST shift register and a high speed on-chip clock generator will be presented to demonstrate the successful DDST operation of RSFQ integrated circuits at a rate of 20 Gb/s.
A demultiplexer (DMUX) is a key subsystem of rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) circuits and systems in practical applications. High-speed data from RSFQ circuits should be converted into sufficiently low-speed ones for transmission to and processing by room temperature electronics. We designed, fabricated and successfully tested an RSFQ DMUX based on the synchronous shift-and-dump architecture whose advantages are modularity and compactness. A 1-to-8 DMUX was implemented using our standard cell library on 1.6 kA cm −2 Nb trilayer technology. Fully functional operation was confirmed by low speed testing. Experimental bias margins were as large as ±16%. Results of average voltage measurements implied that the DMUX was operated at data rates up to 25 Gb s −1 .
A 1-to-4 demultiplexer (DEMUX) was designed based on Single Flux Quantum (SFQ) circuitry and high-speed operation was confirmed using on-chip testing. The circuit was designed with a binary-tree structure to enable high-speed operation. We also investigated timing between clock and data signals in detail. Monte Carlo simulation was applied to vary the design parameters pseudo-randomly and the spread of timing was obtained by circuit simulation. Even if the circuit parameters varied as a result of the fabrication process, proper timing was maintained by optimizing the length of Josephson transmission line. The 1-to-4 DEMUX we fabricated distributed data signals correctly at operating frequencies up to 56 GHz with a bias margin of /spl plusmn/7%.
Superconductive Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) logic and memory, in which ones and zeros are represented by the presence or absence within a timing window of quantized picosecond voltage pulse (/spl int/v(t)dt=h/2e=2.07 mV/spl middot/ps), corresponding to one SFQ, can be integrated into a digital computing system with an operating rate of several tens of GHz, based on the present Nb Josephson junction integrated circuit technology. It is the most promising technology beyond semiconductor transistors for low-power high-end computation. However, as the operating speed of circuits and systems increase, timing uncertainty from fabrication process variations makes global synchronization very hard. In this paper, we present a globally asynchronous, locally synchronous timing methodology for RSFQ digital design, which can solve the global synchronization problem. We also demonstrate the recent experimental results of some asynchronous circuits and systems implemented in RSFQ technology. Several key components such as a self-timed shift register, a self-timed demultiplexor, a Muller-C element, a completion detector, and a clock generator have been designed and tested. High speed operation has been confirmed up to 20 Gb/s for a prototype data buffer system, which consists two self-timed shift registers and an on-chip 5-38 GHz clock generator.
The lack of a high-density and high-speed memory is a serious impediment for realization of large-scale RSFQ digital systems. A shift resister memory, which has high throughput and simple circuit structure, is one candidate to overcome this drawback. We show a design framework of the shift register memory, which is usable for the high-speed register files and the main memories of the RSFQ microprocessor. The proposed system consists of an array of shift registers and a packet decoder that switches a high-speed serial data stream into the specified shift register. The target clock frequency is 16 GHz assuming 2.5 kA/cm/sup 2/ Nb standard process. We have estimated the propagation delay and the circuit area of the data-driven self-timed (DDST) packet decoder. Based on this estimation, we have also evaluated the access time and the area of the memory system. Several key components, including the one-to-two packet switch and the one-to-four DDST packet decoder, were implemented and their correct operations were confirmed.