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Enhanced voltage swing of rapid-single-flux-quantum distributed output amplifier equipped with double-stack superconducting quantum interference devices

Yoshinao Mizugaki, Komei Higuchi, Hiroshi Shimada

Published Jan 1, 2019• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We report the enhanced voltage swing of a rapid-single-flux-quantum (RSFQ) distributed amplifier by replacing a single superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) with a double-stack-SQUID (DSS). A DSS is composed of two stacked 2-junction SQUIDs sharing one sensing inductor. Thanks to its stack structure, a DSS is expected to generate twofold output voltage. We have designed a 12-stage RSFQ distributed amplifier equipped with DSSs. The maximum output voltage swing reached 10.2 mV in simulation. Test chips were fabricated using a 25-µA/µm2 Nb integration process. In measurements, a test chip was cooled in a liquid helium bath. The experimental output voltage swing was up to 8.34 mV.

DOI
10.1587/elex.16.20190331

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We report the enhanced voltage swing of a rapid-single-flux-quantum (RSFQ) distributed amplifier by replacing a single superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) with a double-stack-SQUID (DSS). A DSS is composed of two stacked 2-junction SQUIDs sharing one sensing inductor. Thanks to its stack structure, a DSS is expected to generate twofold output voltage. We have designed a 12-stage RSFQ distributed amplifier equipped with DSSs. The maximum output voltage swing reached 10.2 mV in simulation. Test chips were fabricated using a 25-µA/µm2 Nb integration process. In measurements, a test chip was cooled in a liquid helium bath. The experimental output voltage swing was up to 8.34 mV.
Recently, many groups have been developing on-chip Rapid Single-Flux-Quantum (RSFQ) output amplifiers which are designed to connect RSFQ circuitry to room temperature electronics. One of such amplifiers is a distributed SQUID amplifier comprising SQUIDs embedded in cascaded RSFQ RS flip-flops. In this paper, we propose a distributed double-SQUID amplifier, where a SQUID is replaced with a double-SQUID. Test circuit was fabricated using a niobium integration technology. Measurements were performed in a liquid helium bath. We confirmed that the maximum output voltage swing of a 4-stage distributed double- SQUID amplifier was 2.93 mV, which was comparable with the corresponding numerical value of 3.54 mV.
The novel element of the rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) logic family-the quasi digital voltage amplifier (QDVA)-which was recently proposed theoretically, has now been designed and experimentally investigated. The QDVA can be employed both as a logic element in digital circuits and as analogue voltage amplifier. The correct operation of the SFQ doubler has been demonstrated up to the output voltage 0.5 mV and with very large margins (up to 60%). The proposed QDVA can be integrated on the same chip with a SQUID sensor; it significantly simplifies the matching circuits and seems to be very attractive for the multichannel and digital SQUID systems.
A low-noise single-chip two-stage superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) system with a double relaxation oscillation SQUID as the second stage has been realized. The system was operated in a direct voltage readout mode, with a closed loop bandwidth up to 1 MHz. Operated at 4.2 K, the white flux noise measured in flux locked loop was 1.3 μΦ0/√Hz, corresponding to an energy sensitivity of ε≈27h. Owing to the large flux-to-voltage transfer of up to 3.6 mV/Φ0, the room-temperature preamplifier noise did not dominate the overall flux noise.
We present an Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) based high voltage driver (HVD) developed for the first amplification stage of a hybrid semiconductor-superconductor memory interface for the RSFQ digital signal processor. Implementation of the driver allows to eliminate the impedance mismatch between RSFQ and standard 50 Omega input of semiconductor electronics and increases the signal-to-noise ratio to reach reliable signal transmission with sufficiently low bit error rate. The driver design is based on the serial stack of 8 SQUIDs with specially configured ground-cuts that form a quasi-coplanar line with 50 Omega impedance. The impedance of the driver has been extracted using 3D EM simulators that accurately take into account multilayer structure and capacitance to the ground. The circuit has been designed for the Hypres 4.5 kA/cm2process. The driver was simulated numerically in PSCAN. The driver can produce output signal at 1 Gbit/s speed and 2.4 mV signal level that is enough to be sensed by low-noise amplifier on the further amplification stage.
Some basic cells in the rapid single-flux quantum (RSFQ) family of superconductive logic circuits were studied. An input stage, a buffer, and an OR gate were simulated and laid out for a standard niobium-based fabrication process. The resulting circuits perform properly for clock speeds up to 1 GHz. For the simpler circuits tested, the measured margins are wide, consistent with simulations, and not very dependent on clock speed. However, margin decreases with increased circuit complexity. The input stage converts a rising edge into an SFQ pulse, which has a small amplitude and narrow width in time. On the present circuits, these pulses are about 200 mu V in amplitude and 10 ps in width. To facilitate measurement, the authors have chosen as the output an asymmetrical superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) consisting of two Josephson junctions. It converts SFQ pulses into 2.5 mV latching output levels on chip. By inductively coupling SFQ pulses into the SQUID loop, DC current isolation between the RSFQ circuit-under-test and the output stage is provided. The SQUID was optimized for 2 GHz operations.>
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.