Improved operation range of digital superconductive electronics by implementing passive phaseshifters

Abstract

We implemented small superconducting loops containing a frozen single flux quantum in single flux quantum (SFQ) electronics. Such an element acts as a π-phaseshifter which is the missing complementary circuit element in SFQ electronics and can significantly improve the circuit reliability and robustness. We designed a four bit ripple counter including toggle flip-flops (TFF) with these π-phaseshifters. We analyzed the circuit stability by means of bit error rate (BER) measurements versus bias supply. The measured operation range of the counter in standard SFQ technique was ±14% and could be improved to ±24% for the new version utilizing π-phaseshifters. These results are a clear proof for a more robust circuit realization achieved without any additional power consumption. Furthermore, it supports the reduction of present power consumption in SFQ circuits by using smaller switching energy as well as the development of more complex circuits because of a reduced sensitivity against technological parameter spread.