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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Three-Terminal Superconducting Digital Transistor

Farshid Raissi, Aylar Khooshemehri, Alireza Erfanian

Published Dec 5, 2018• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Discrete array of small Josephson junctions can exhibit flux-flow behavior, which is drastically different from that of long Josephson junctions. In particular, the flux-flow voltage does not monotonically increase with magnetic field; rather, it decreases after a threshold until it reaches zero. Here, using simulation and experimental results, we show that the flux-flow voltage switches abruptly to zero if a magnetic field larger than the threshold is applied to a part of the array. This provides for a digital NOT gate in which the flux-flow voltage corresponds to digital state 1 and zero voltage denotes digital state 0. For a device size of 230 μm, a switching frequency of 15 GHz is evaluated, which can be improved by downsizing the device. Since this device provides gain, its input and output are isolated and has unlimited fan-out, designing and implementing various digital systems is easily accomplished.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2018.2884977

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Discrete array of small Josephson junctions can exhibit flux-flow behavior, which is drastically different from that of long Josephson junctions. In particular, the flux-flow voltage does not monotonically increase with magnetic field; rather, it decreases after a threshold until it reaches zero. Here, using simulation and experimental results, we show that the flux-flow voltage switches abruptly to zero if a magnetic field larger than the threshold is applied to a part of the array. This provides for a digital NOT gate in which the flux-flow voltage corresponds to digital state 1 and zero voltage denotes digital state 0. For a device size of 230 μm, a switching frequency of 15 GHz is evaluated, which can be improved by downsizing the device. Since this device provides gain, its input and output are isolated and has unlimited fan-out, designing and implementing various digital systems is easily accomplished.
The development of three-terminal superconducting devices with transistor-like characteristics may be crucial for a number of applications of superconducting electronics. A three-terminal Josephson device which in principle could have gain, and which depends on the magnetoelectric effect is described. The magnetoelectric effect is a property of the antiferromagnetic phase of certain compounds. When an electric field is applied across a magnetoelectric material, a magnetization develops. If one Josephson junction of a two-junction, three-electrode sandwich contained a magnetoelectric barrier, a magnetic field would result if that junction were switched to the finite voltage state. This field, when coupled into the second junction, would cause it to switch from the zero-voltage to the finite voltage state. If the second junction had a larger critical current than the drive junction, then the three-terminal device would have gain.
Volt-ampere characteristics of the Josephson junction vortex-flow transistor were studied through comparison of experiment and numerical simulation. Fine structure in the flux flow branch, which is not predicted by a simple particle model for flux flow, is shown to be quantized in voltage. The quantization results from the interaction of the flux wave with the junction’s cavity resonances. It is shown that the separation of the voltage states is proportional to the maximum operating frequency of the device. In an amplifier circuit, quantization in the output voltage will reduce the dynamic range of the device by adding quantization noise. Hysteretic switching between states produces distortion. Possible device modifications for removing the quantization are discussed.
A niobium-based superconducting amplifier consisting of a series array of 60 vortex flow transistors (VFT) was fabricated and tested. Each VFT consisted of a long Josephson junction biased in the flux flow state, magnetically coupled to a current based on a distributed amplifier configuration. The transresistance of the amplifier in a 50- Omega environment for frequencies up to 1 MHz was measured. The transresistance of the array was less than the expected value calculated from measurements obtained on a single VFT. The difference was probably due to nonuniformities in the fabrication process, which caused some of the junctions not to be biased in the flux flow state or receive the same amount of magnetic field from the control line. However, measurements of the array showed that a large number of VFTs could be connected in series and simultaneously be biased into the flux flow state.>
A theoretical study is made of a travelling-wave-type oscillator, which utilizes a flux flow in a long Josephson junction for use as a local oscillator in the integrated superconducting receiver system. An internal electromagnetic field of the oscillator junction in the flux-flow state is investigated both numerically and analytically. It is shown that the voltage amplitude of the internal oscillation increases gradually in the direction of the flux flow and reaches a maximum value at the junction end. An equivalent circuit of the oscillator is also obtained, which gives dependences of the emitted radiation on frequency, magnetic field, and load. It is shown that the output power attains the value of the order of 10−6 W in the frequency range between 100 and 500 GHz, and that the output power and the radiation frequency can be controlled by both the bias voltage and the applied magnetic field. These theoretical results explain quantitatively the experimental ones with a Pb-alloy long junction of length 24 λJ.
Superconducting flux flow transistors (SFFTs) have recently been used in a W-band amplifier operating from 91 to 98 GHz and in an invertor configured as an oscillator operating at 86 GHz. These SFFTs consist of three weakened YBaCuO links in parallel. The links are about 1- mu m wide, 3- mu m long, and 20-nm thick (relative to an electrode thickness of about 200 nm). The links are biased above their local critical field so that vortices flow through the links in accordance with the Lorentz-type force supplied by the bias. The 'gate' is a control line located proximate to the link system and supplies a local magnetic field. Above a critical current, flux flow begins and the device enters the active region characterized by a transresistive response to control current and a finite output resistance. A flux flow invertor circuit can consist of 2 SFFTs: both devices are in parallel with the current bias and the input is a control current to one device.