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Review of Scientific Instruments

Superconducting quantum interference device readout circuit with tunable feedback polarity

Xinyu Wu, Jianshe Liu, Wei Chen

Published Sep 1, 2023• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Feedback circuits, which act as functional units in superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) readout circuits, such as positive feedback circuits for suppressing the preamplifier noise contribution or negative feedback circuits for increasing the linear flux range of SQUID, enable SQUIDs to achieve high performance in practical applications. Integrating feedback circuits with different functions into a single SQUID chip contributes to the construction of highly compact SQUID electronics. Here, we propose a SQUID readout circuit with tunable feedback polarity (TFP). The switching of the feedback polarity is easily realized by applying a control current to the superconducting switches integrated into the SQUID chip. The enhancement of the flux-to-voltage transfer coefficient or the linear flux range depends on the choice of feedback polarity. In addition, we introduce a two-stage scheme to address the degraded noise performance induced by negative feedback. This work attempts to develop a compact and versatile architecture of SQUID readout by using a set of compatible superconducting technologies.

DOI
10.1063/5.0162805

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Feedback circuits, which act as functional units in superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) readout circuits, such as positive feedback circuits for suppressing the preamplifier noise contribution or negative feedback circuits for increasing the linear flux range of SQUID, enable SQUIDs to achieve high performance in practical applications. Integrating feedback circuits with different functions into a single SQUID chip contributes to the construction of highly compact SQUID electronics. Here, we propose a SQUID readout circuit with tunable feedback polarity (TFP). The switching of the feedback polarity is easily realized by applying a control current to the superconducting switches integrated into the SQUID chip. The enhancement of the flux-to-voltage transfer coefficient or the linear flux range depends on the choice of feedback polarity. In addition, we introduce a two-stage scheme to address the degraded noise performance induced by negative feedback. This work attempts to develop a compact and versatile architecture of SQUID readout by using a set of compatible superconducting technologies.
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Recently, we demonstrated and analysed the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) bootstrap circuit (SBC). It is a direct readout scheme for dc SQUID in the voltage bias mode, permitting one to suppress the preamplifier noise. The SBC enables us to control the two key parameters of a voltage-biased SQUID: the flux-to-current transfer coefficient and the dynamic resistance. The flux-to-current, I??, characteristics of SBC are made asymmetric by introducing the additional current feedback. Depending upon the choice of the working point, this feedback can be positive (working point W2 on the steeper I?? slope) or negative (W1 on the less steep slope). The dynamic resistance is controlled by the additional voltage feedback. In our publications to date we presented only the SBC operation at W2, while in this paper we demonstrate operation at W1 and show that also in this regime the preamplifier noise suppression is possible. We used a liquid-helium-cooled Nb SQUID with a loop inductance of 350 pH and attained white flux noise of 2.5? ??0?Hz ? 1/2 both at W2 and at W1. In the latter case, the linear flux range exceeded one half-flux quantum ?0. This large linear range should lead to a significantly improved stability and slew rate of the system and also make the tolerable spread in circuit parameters much wider than in all SQUID direct readout schemes known to date. Consequently, operation in this regime opens a new path to possible SBC optimization.
We have designed and tested a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) readout circuit, which can be operated at liquid helium temperatures. Although room-temperature SQUID electronics perform well, it is sometimes desirable to keep the wires between SQUID, readout electronics, and feedback coil as short as possible to minimize phase shifts and time delays. Cooling the readout circuit to low temperatures can also decrease its thermal noise. Our readout circuit uses conventional ac-flux modulation, which significantly reduces low frequency excess noise and drift in the preamplifier. In this case, simple complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor circuits with low power dissipation can be used as amplifier, phase-sensitive detector and integrator. The power dissipation of the complete readout is less than 15mW at 5V supply voltage.
User-friendly ultra-high-speed readout electronics for dc superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) are presented. To maximize the system bandwidth, the SQUID is directly read out without flux modulation. A composite preamplifier is used consisting of a slow dc amplifier in parallel with a fast ac amplifier. In this way, excellent dc precision and a high amplifier bandwidth of 50 MHz are achieved, simultaneously. A virtual 50 Ω amplifier input resistance with negligible excess noise is realized by active shunting, i.e., by applying feedback from preamplifier output to input via a high resistance. The white voltage and current noise levels are 0.33 nV Hz −1 and 2.6 pA Hz −1/2 , respectively. The electronics is fully computer controlled via a microcontroller integrated into the flux-locked loop (FLL) board. Easy-to-use software makes the various electronic settings accessible. A wide bias voltage range of 1.3 mV enables the readout of series SQUID arrays. Furthermore, additional current sources allow the operation of two-stage SQUIDs or transition edge sensors. The electronics was tested using various SQUIDs with input inductances between 30 nH and 1.5 µH. Typically, the maximum FLL bandwidth was 20 MHz, which is close to the theoretical limit given by transmission line delay within the FLL. Slew rates of up to 4.6 Φ 0 µs −1 were achieved with series SQUID arrays. Current noise levels as low as 0.47 pA Hz −1/2 and coupled energy sensitivities between 90 h and 500 h were measured at 4.2 K, where h is the Planck constant. The noise did not degrade when the system bandwidth was increased to the maximum value of about 20 MHz. With a two-stage set-up, intrinsic white energy sensitivities of 30 h and 2.3 h were measured at 4.2 and 0.3 K, respectively.
We report on the continuous feedback operation of a two-stage dc Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) system in which one SQUID works as a low-noise preamplifier to read out a second low-noise sensor SQUID. We first flux-locked the readout SQUID and measured the characteristics of the sensor SQUID, including its current-voltage characteristics, current-flux characteristics, and noise spectrum. We then investigated how the two SQUIDs could work together by simultaneously flux-locking both the sensor and the readout SQUIDs. With this two-SQUID flux-locking scheme, we recovered the noise spectrum of the sensor SQUID to within 4%. We discuss how to understand and optimize the two-stage SQUID feedback system.
Superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) are low-noise amplifiers that are essential for the readouts of translation edge sensors (TESs). The linear flux range is an important parameter for SQUID amplifiers, especially those controlled by high-bandwidth digital flux-locked-loop circuits. A large linear flux range conduces to accurately measuring the input signal and also increasing the multiplexing factor in the time-division multiplexed (TDM) readout scheme of the TES array. In this work, we report that the linear flux range of an SQUID can be improved by using self-feedback effect. When the SQUID loop is designed to be asymmetric, a voltage-biased SQUID shows an asymmetric current–flux (I–Φ) response curve. The linear flux range is improved along the I–Φ curve with a shallow slope. The experimental results accord well with the numerical simulations. The asymmetric SQUID will be able to serve as a building block in the development of the TDM readout systems for large TES arrays.