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IEICE Transactions on Electronics

Superconductor Digital Electronics Past, Present, and Future

T. Van Duzer

Published Mar 1, 2008• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper presents the history of superconductor digital circuits starting from several years after the discovery of the Josephson junction in 1962. The first two decades were mainly devoted to developing voltage-state logic, which is similar to semiconductor logic. Research on circuits employing the manipulation of single magnetic flux quanta resulted in a form called RSFQ in the mid-1980s; this is the basis of superconductor logic systems of today. The more difficult problem of random access memory is reviewed. We analyze the present status of the field and outline the work that lies ahead to realize a successful superconductor digital technology.

DOI
10.1093/ietele/e91-c.3.260

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This paper presents the history of superconductor digital circuits starting from several years after the discovery of the Josephson junction in 1962. The first two decades were mainly devoted to developing voltage-state logic, which is similar to semiconductor logic. Research on circuits employing the manipulation of single magnetic flux quanta resulted in a form called RSFQ in the mid-1980s; this is the basis of superconductor logic systems of today. The more difficult problem of random access memory is reviewed. We analyze the present status of the field and outline the work that lies ahead to realize a successful superconductor digital technology.
Advancement of superconductor digital electronics, especially Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) logic circuit is described. Ultra short pulse of a voltage generated across a Josephson junction and release from charging/discharging process for signal transmission in RSFQ circuits enable us to reduce power consumption and gate delay. The power-delay products (PDPs) of RSFQ integrated circuits (ICs) are 4 or 5 orders of magnitude smaller than those of semiconductor ICs. The fabrication process technology and the related designing technology have been advanced, and RSFQ ICs have been applied to software-defined radio receivers, superconductor detector array systems, and supercomputers. Recently, several kinds of energy-efficient single flux quantum circuit have been proposed to obtain further advantage to semiconductor devices. The PDPs of these circuits become at least 1 order smaller than those of conventional RSFQ circuits.
In the shadow of high-temperature superconductivity, 35 years of research in low-temperature superconductor ICs quietly comes to fruition, yielding the world's fastest circuits. They are made with a superconducting metal, niobium, rather than a compound semiconductor. Their exotic technology is based on Josephson junction devices and the transmission of single quanta of magnetic flux along superconductor interconnects. This paper describes these ICs and also a logic family called rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) logic, which is based on the storage and transmission of quanta of magnetic flux.
Design and manufacturing of superconductive electronics have been evolving over the past three decades with significant progress made in related fields. Rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) logic circuits have become popular among superconductive logic families and its energy-efficient variants (ERSFQ and eSFQ) have shown promise as an ultra lowpower and high-speed circuit fabric. SFQ circuits have been demonstrated at tens of GHz with an energy consumption of an attojoule per gate. There are many differences between SFQ and conventional CMOS circuits. SFQ logic circuits are based on the manipulation of the quantized magnetic flux pulses. Most of the logic gates are sequential in nature requiring the clock to be distributed to every logic gate. SFQ logic gates have no gain and hence splitters are needed to drive multiple fanouts. Design and successful demonstration of a controllable superconducting switch and a compact reliable memory element have evaded researchers so far. This paper starts by describing key differences between SFQ logic and conventional CMOS and concludes by listing key challenges that must be overcome to achieve the very large scale integration of SFQ circuits and make the demonstration of a superconductive CPU a reality.
The lack of dense, fast, energy efficient memory has been the main detractor for multiple superconducting digital projects in the past. Recently, fundamental physics research in superconductor-ferromagnet thin-film tunnel structures created a new opportunity to solve this long-standing problem. Superconductivity and ferromagnetism, two deeply antagonistic electronic properties, can co-exist in form of Magnetic Josephson Junctions (MJJs). The superconducting-ferromagnetic MJJs are electrically compatible with traditional superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) Josephson junctions (JJs) used for digital energy-efficient single flux quantum (eSFQ/ERSFQ) circuits. Both MJJ and JJ circuits have similar fabrication process and can be integrated on a single chip. As a result, a combination of MJJs and JJs can be used to form addressable memory cells, energy-efficient memory periphery circuits and programmable logic elements. In this paper, we present the test results of superconductor-insulator-ferromagnet-superconductor (SIFS) MJJs showing their applicability for superconducting spintronic memory and digital circuits.
Ultrafast switching speed, low power, natural quantization of magnetic flux, quantum accuracy, and low noise of cryogenic superconductor circuits enable fast and accurate data conversion between the analog and digital domains. Based on rapid single-flux quantum (RSFQ) logic, these integrated circuits are capable of achieving performance levels unattainable by any other technology. Two major classes of superconductor analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are being developed - Nyquist sampling and oversampling converters. Complete systems with digital sampling at rates of /spl sim/20 GHz and above have been demonstrated using low-temperature superconductor device technology. Some ADC components have also been implemented using high-temperature superconductors. Superconductor ADCs have unique applications in true digital-RF communications, broadband instrumentation, and digital sensor readout. Their designs, test results, and future development trends are reviewed.
The Rapid Single-Flux-Quantum logic (RSFQ) presents an efficient way to achieve ultra fast digital operations. This logic uses the macroscopic effects which can be found in nano-structured superconductor devices such as the Josephson AC and DC effects, and the magnetic flux quantization. As the typical time of the Josephson junction quantized phase leap 2π is in the order of picoseconds, the RSFQ circuits can operate with clock frequencies in the order of hundreds of GHz. This invited paper focuses on basic principles of superconducting RSFQ logic as well as on typical applications, such as the signal conversion or petaflops computing systems. In addition we point out the benefits of the semi-metallic NbN-TaxN-NbN Josephson junction technology, which has been developed at CEA-INAC in Grenoble.