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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Stacked double-flux-quantum output amplifier

Quentin Herr

Published Jun 1, 2005• 27 citations

Abstract

A suitable data link from RSFQ to semiconductor electronics remains challenging. We report an output amplifier that uses a new pulse multiplier circuit. The pulse multiplier consists of several stages arranged in series; a double-flux-quantum gate at each stage promotes the SFQ pulse to the next stage. Characteristics of the circuit design are: 1) DC power. As with the DFQ gate, every unshunted Josephson junction in the amplifier is loaded by critically-damped junctions that prevent voltage-state modes. 2) Equal rise and fall times that scale with output amplitude. In our case, 50 ps rise and fall time and 1-2 mV output amplitude can be realized, which is ideal for a data rate of 10 Gb/s. 3) Quantum accurate voltage multiplication independent of bias current. 4) Non-return-to-zero (NRZ) operation. The circuit was designed and successfully tested in our 8 kA/cm/sup 2/ foundry process. A 60 GHz pulse train, generated on-chip, was gated with RSFQ logic to produce a data pattern that was then fed into a pulse multiplier of either ten or twenty stages. Voltage multiplication was observed with operating margins of /spl plusmn/21% on bias current. Fast rise time was directly observed; unfortunately, fall time was spoiled by ringing on a 1 ns time scale. It is plausible that small changes to the physical layout of the circuit would produce desired operation.

DOI: 10.1109/tasc.2005.849784

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Precise voltage generation is a unique feature of single-flux-quantum (SFQ) circuits, in addition to their high-speed digital signal processing with low power consumption. We investigated SFQ pulse-frequency modulation D/A converters for metrological applications. In our SFQ-based D/A converters, the maximum output voltage is determined by the maximum SFQ pulse-frequency at the pulse number multiplier, and by the voltage multiplication factor at the voltage multiplier. In this study, we present our new design for a double-flux-quantum amplifier (DFQA) that works as a quantum voltage multiplier. In the new parameter set, we tuned the damping parameters of the Josephson junctions to realize proper propagation of SFQ pulses. A 1000-fold DFQA designed with the new parameter set was fabricated using a 25-μ A/μ m2Nb/AlOx/Nb integration technology. A 1000-fold voltage multiplication was confirmed for the input voltage up to 43 μV, with a corresponding SFQ repetition frequency of 21 GHz. That is, the output voltage reached 43 mV.

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We evaluate the input–output characteristics of a 1000-fold voltage multiplier designed for single-flux-quantum (SFQ) digital-to-analog converters. The voltage multiplication is based on the double-flux-quantum amplifier (DFQA) that was originally proposed by Herr in 2005. We have designed and fabricated a 999-stage DFQA using a Nb/AlO x /Nb integration technology. In experiments, we have used two methods of feeding the input SFQ pulse train. The one is an overbiasing method, i.e., the input SFQ pulse train is generated at an overbiased input junction. A 1000-fold voltage multiplication with errors less than ±1% has been confirmed for input voltages of up to 27 µV, of which the corresponding Josephson frequency is 13 GHz. In the other method, a dc/SFQ converter is used for feeding the input SFQ pulse train. A 1000-fold voltage multiplication with an error of −0.03% has been obtained for an input frequency of 600 MHz, of which the corresponding Josephson voltage is 1.2 µV. In experiments, errors in measured voltages are likely to limit the accuracy in evaluation of the multiplication factor.

High-speed logic operation of an output interface circuit for a single-flux-quantum (SFQ) system was demonstrated at a data rate of 5 Gb/s. Using NEC's 2.5-kA/cm/sup 2/ Nb junction process, we designed, fabricated, and tested the interface circuit consisting of a 2-b SFQ demultiplexer and two Josephson latching drivers. We verified the proper operation of the demultiplexer. The interface can convert 5-Gb/s SFQ-pulse data into two-channel 2.5-Gb/s return-to-zero data with an amplitude of approximately 6 mV.