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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Effects of Superconducting Return Currents on RSFQ Circuit Performance

Alan M. Kadin, R.J. Webber, Saad M. Sarwana

Published Jun 1, 2005• 40 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Complex RSFQ circuits are typically dc-biased with one or more current bias trees, with current returning through a superconducting ground plane. As the bias currents become larger in more complex circuits, it is increasingly critical to pay attention to the distribution of these return currents, and the effects of the resulting magnetic fields on the performance of the RSFQ circuits. We have modeled the current and field distributions, and found that magnetic field and flux are indeed significant. This has been confirmed by direct measurement using a distribution of SQUIDs. Furthermore, we have measured the performance of several RSFQ circuits, and have found that currents in the ground plane can significantly affect performance margins. Approaches to circuit and system designs that can reduce these problems are discussed.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2005.849789

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Complex RSFQ circuits are typically dc-biased with one or more current bias trees, with current returning through a superconducting ground plane. As the bias currents become larger in more complex circuits, it is increasingly critical to pay attention to the distribution of these return currents, and the effects of the resulting magnetic fields on the performance of the RSFQ circuits. We have modeled the current and field distributions, and found that magnetic field and flux are indeed significant. This has been confirmed by direct measurement using a distribution of SQUIDs. Furthermore, we have measured the performance of several RSFQ circuits, and have found that currents in the ground plane can significantly affect performance margins. Approaches to circuit and system designs that can reduce these problems are discussed.
Large-scale SFQ integrated circuits require a large amount of dc-bias current. The magnetic fields induced by the dc-bias currents and the return currents flowing in a ground plane have a great influence on the performance of SFQ circuits. As an approach to reduce the influence, the dc-power (DCP) layer placed under a ground plane is newly introduced in SRL advanced Nb process. We have experimentally evaluated the effects of the DCP layer using SQUIDs and large-scale Josephson transmission line (JTL) circuits with more than 10,000 junctions. The SQUIDs showed that there was small magnetic flux coupling between the DCP lines and themselves and that the coupled flux was enhanced by the return current. The coupled flux decreased with increasing line width of the DCP lines and with increasing distance from the centerlines of them. In the large-scale JTL tests, the cells with DCP patterns showed wider operating margins than the CONNECT OPEN cells with partial magnetic shielding of bias current lines. The test results also showed that a line shape along the periphery of a cell was more effective than a plane shape within a cell as a DCP layer pattern for bias current feeds.
The supply of bias current is one of the key problems to be overcome for fully operational large-scale SFQ circuits. Large currents cause various undesirable effects that degrade circuit operation. The magnetic field induced by a large DC bias current affects the operation of several SFQ cells, even with a microstrip-line structure applied for the bias lines. In this paper, experimental results using SQUIDs show that bias-line shielding is the most effective way to reduce the effect of the DC bias current. The operating margins of SFQ cells were also found to be sensitive to the current in the ground plane. The location of a ground bonding should be close to the point of current injection if we wish to avoid undesirable diffusion of current through the ground plane. We confirmed the effectiveness of bias-line shielding and of the location of ground bonding with a circuit composed of about 500 junctions.
Two effects of the bias supply line on the performance of RSFQ circuits have been studied: inductive coupling between the bias supply line and circuit inductances; effect of the mirrored current in the ground plane. The following results of the study are presented: 3D calculations and experimental measurements of inductive coupling between parallel and perpendicular microstrips in presence of one and two ground planes; calculated margins dependence on the external magnetic field in RSFQ cell. Bias current density extraction method has been developed and implemented in RSFQ circuit design flow.
The magnetic fields induced by the bias currents and the return currents flowing on a ground plane have a great influence on the performance of complex RSFQ circuits. Conventional approach applies equal negative bias currents to the ground contacts adjacent to the bias supply contacts to alleviate this problem, but this strategy may not be optimal when the power supply network is complex. We propose a new test approach to adjusting the negative bias currents independently. By changing the current distribution and thereby altering the spatial distribution of the magnetic field across the chip, this approach can make the circuit work, or make the circuit work more stably. Experimental validation on two 8-bit RSFQ CPUs demonstrated the approach's efficacy: redistributing negative currents restored functionality in a non-operational circuit and eliminated the intermittent failure in another. These results highlight the critical role of adjusting current distribution in overcoming magnetic interference, offering a practical solution for testing and optimizing the power supply of complex RSFQ circuits where conventional approach falls short.
Single-flux-quantum (SFQ) digital circuits are mostly based on cells that rely on reliable foundry processes that make use of a superconducting ground plane as a reference for the active elements and the microstrip line interconnects. The quantum of magnetic flux h/2e, associated with the binary information, corresponds to a magnetic field energy density that needs to be localized in space to limit interactions between adjacent cells. In other words, mutual inductances can harm the proper behaviour of circuits unless they are taken carefully into account during the design phase. We studied extensively the Josephson transmission line cell with different geometrical configurations of the ground plane and bias pads. We found with the use of InductEx that the return current sometimes follows paths that are far from what intuition tells, which can lead to nonoptimized designs. In this paper, we emphasize the limitations due to the presence of external or internal magnetic fields. Then, we compare obtained performances with the ones with optimized geometries for which the presence of the magnetic field is taken into account from the design phase.
The practical implementation of RSFQ technology in most digital electronics application areas requires much more complexity than the presently developed circuits. There are two important issues in building large-scale RSFQ circuits: 1) the recycling of the bias currents and 2) the transfer of SFQ pulses between circuits located far apart. RSFQ circuits are well known to operate with DC current bias. Even though the DC current biasing is more forgiving than the problematic AC biasing, it can still be a big concern when the circuit size becomes large. Dramatic reduction of the total bias current can be achieved by biasing several RSFQ circuits in series, where each circuit is positioned on a separate ground plane. In this work, we have used magnetically coupled Josephson transmission lines as inputs and outputs of an isolated shift register to show the feasibility of using the concept of serial biasing in current recycling. The circuit was simulated, fabricated with Nb technology, and tested at a temperature of 4.2 K. Test results show that SFQ pulses were transferred into the shift register built on a separate ground plane, clocked through it, and sent out back to the circuit on the original ground plane. We also studied on how to transfer SFQ pulses over an extended length, an important issue in building large RSFQ circuits. We have designed the circuits to test our microstrip line and multichip module approaches. We designed, optimized, fabricated and tested the circuits. Test results show that SFQ pulses can be successfully transmitted over an extensive distance in a chip and between chips.