SUPERCONDUCTING FLUX FLOW DIGITAL CIRCUITS

We have developed a family of digital logic circuits based on superconducting flux flow transistors that show high speed, reasonable signal levels, large fan-out, and large noise margins. The circuits are made from high-temperature superconductors (HTS) and have been shown to operate at over 90 K. NOR gates have been demonstrated with fan-outs of more than 5 and fully loaded switching times less than a fixture-limited 50 ps. Ring-oscillator data suggest inverter delay times of about 40 ps when using a 3-mum linewidths. Simple flip-flops have also been demonstrated showing large noise margins, response times of less than 30 ps, and static power dissipation on the order of 30 nW. Among other uses, this logic family is appropriate as an interface between logic families such as single flux quantum and conventional semiconductor logic.