Reconfigurable Logic Cell for Superconducting Magnetic Field Programmable Gate Array

Abstract

Field Programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are one of the most successful circuits in the semiconductor industry. In the absence of a reliable three-terminal switch like MOSFET for rapid single flux quantum(RSFQ) technology, it was difficult to implement FPGA like reconfiguralbe circuits. However, a recently proposed superconducting magnetic FPGA (SMFPGA) implements a controllable switch by controlling the critical current of magnetic Josephson Junctions (MJJs) placed in energy-efficient RSFQ bias network. For implementing a configurable logic block (CLB) with a smaller area for the said FPGA, we designed a reconfigurable gate that can implement four basic logical functions: AND, OR, XOR and NOT. The programmability to implement the four functions is achieved by introducing MJJs in the circuit at specific locations and programming their critical current. The gate is made reconfigurable by having the ability to change both the bias current at different ports and the critical current of a JJ in the gate to two different values. This makes the size of CLB ten times smaller compared to the earlier design and simplifies the SMFPGA. We describe the design methodology and the simulation results of the reconfigurable gate.