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IEEE International Superconductive Electronics Conference (ISEC)

60-GHz demonstration of an SFQ half-precision bit-serial floating-point adder using 10 kA/cm2 Nb process

T. Kato, Yuki Yamanashi, Nobuyuki Yoshikawa, Akira Fujimaki, Naofumi Takagi, Kazuyoshi Takagi, Shuichi Nagasawa

Published Jul 1, 2013• 18 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We are developing a large-scale reconfigurable data-path (LSRDP) based on single-flux-quantum (SFQ) circuits to establish a fundamental technology for future high-performance computing systems. In the LSRDP, an SFQ floating-point adder (FPA) is one of the main and most complicated circuit blocks. In our previous study, we implemented an SFQ half-precision (16-bit) bit-serial FPA using the ISTEC 2.5 kA/cm2standard process, and demonstrated the correct operations at 24 GHz by on-chip high-speed tests. In this study, we designed and implemented an SFQ half-precision bit-serial FPA using a cell library for the AIST 10 kA/cm2Nb nine-metal-layer process (ADP2), and carried out on-chip high speed tests. The designed FPA contains 9661 Josephson junctions and occupies a circuit area of 12.95 mm2. Its target operation frequency is 50 GHz. We have demonstrated the correct operation of the FPA at the maximum frequency of 62 GHz although there is a functional error in the design. The measured DC bias margin ranges from 102% to 108% at 50 GHz operation. The total power consumption is measured to be 2.9 mW.

DOI
10.1109/isec.2013.6604272

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Design and Implementation of Component Circuits of an SFQ Half-Precision Floating-Point Adder Using 10-kA/cm2^{2}2 Nb Process
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A single flux quantum (SFQ) logic cell library has been developed for the 10kA/cm2 Nb multi-layer fabrication process to efficiently design large-scale SFQ digital circuits. In the new cell library, the critical current density of Josephson junctions is increased from 2.5kA/cm2 to 10kA/cm2 compared to our conventional cell library, and the McCumber-Stwart parameter of each Josephson junction is increased to 2 in order to increase the circuit operation speed. More than 300 cells have been designed, including fundamental logic cells and wiring cells for passive interconnects. We have measured all cells and confirmed they stably operate with wide operating margins. On-chip high-speed test of the toggle flip-flop (TFF) cell has been performed by measuring the input and output voltages. The TFF cell at the input frequency of up to 400GHz was confirmed to operate correctly. Also, several fundamental digital circuits, a 4-bit concurrent-flow shift register and a bit-serial adder have been designed using the new cell library, and the correct operations of the circuits have been demonstrated at high clock frequencies of more than 100GHz.