Design methodologies for mixed-signal multi-gigahertz RSFQ circuits

Müller Lc, Gerber Hr, Fourie Cj

T. Van Duzer, L Zheng, Xiangchao Meng +6 more

H.R. Gerber, Coenrad Johann Fourie, Willem Jakobus Perold

Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) logic is a digital circuit technology that in recent years has presented itself as an alternative to semiconductors in the application of ultra high speed, very low power applications. The optimal timing of digital circuits operating at hundreds of Gigahertz is still a complex problem for both RSFQ and semiconductor technologies. The fact that most RSFQ gates require a clock signal to function makes this even more complex. Various RSFQ liming schemes have been adapted from semiconductor design methodologies, and some have been designed specifically for RSFQ. Currently, synchronous clocking schemes outperform other schemes, but with the scale of RSFQ circuits ever increasing, the proper use of timing schemes are becoming more crucial. This paper describes a new asynchronous self-timing scheme where the details of clock distribution and clocking are built into the logic gates. Tests were done on the newly developed asynchronous logic-gales and a asynchronous full adder was implemented and tested.

Boyko Dimov, Valeri Mladenov, Valery Todorov +2 more

C.A. Mancini, Nada Vukovic, Andrea M. Herr +3 more

The circular shift register is a versatile building block for RSFQ digital circuits. It can be used for local memory and it is essential for the proposed im- plementation of residue number system anthmetic. It is then sur rising that the successful recurrent operation of such a s&ft register has never been reported in the RSFQ literature. Circular shift registers have a design constraint that is unusual in RSFQ circuits--the requirement of zero overall clock skew. We propose and analyze three novel designs and compare their simulated parameter margins as well as their maximum operating frequencies, laten- cies and areas. These desi ns differ in the topology of the clock distribution networf as well as the ty e of storage element employed in the data path. Two fesigns show satisfactory parameter margins and large maximum clock frequency. I. INTRODUCTION Digital signal processors with multi-gigahertz clock rates and high bandwidth mixed-signal circuits (l) require fzst aid robust memory unit to store repeatedly used &ita. In Rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) logic, serial memory imple- meuted with circular shift registers (CSR) is an ideal choice for this task. These registers can be used to store the coeffi- cients of a digital filter (2), the samples of an arbitraiy wave- foiin generator, etc. Circular shift registers are also used as tlie core element of computational units to perfoi-m residue nurn- ber system arithmetic (3). RSFQ circular shift registers com- bine short access time with high throughput and cai be easily interfaced to low-frequency, extei-nal semiconductor electrou- ics.

Kris Gaj, Quentin Herr, Victor Adler +3 more

Rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) digital circuits have reached the level of medium- to large-scale of integration. At this level, existing design methodologies, developed specifically for RSFQ circuits, have become computationally inefficient. Applying mature semiconductor methodologies to the design of RSFQ circuits, one encounters substantial difficulties originating from the differences between both technologies. In this paper, a new design methodology aimed at large-scale RSFQ circuits is proposed. This methodology is based on a semiconductor semicustom design approach. An established design methodology for small-stale RSFQ digital circuits, based on circuit (junction-level) simulation and device parameter optimization, is used for the design of basic RSFQ cells. A library composed of about 20 basic RSFQ cells has been developed based on this approach. A novel design methodology for large-scale circuits, presented in this paper, is based on logic (gate-level) simulation and timing optimization. This methodology has been implemented around the Cadence integrated design environment and used successfully at the University of Rochester for the design of two large-scale digital circuits.