Research on the current compensation mechanism of FJTL in ERSFQ

Abstract

Energy-efficient rapid single flux quantum (ERSFQ) devices have unique energy advantages with a power consumption of less than 0.001fJ per single-bit switch, even considering the energy required for the refrigeration system, achieving ultra-low energy consumption of sub-fJ/bit. Combined with its typical operating frequency in the tens of GHz range, ERSFQ circuits have the potential to realize computing chips with extremely high computational power and energy efficiency, making them highly promising for applications in the post-Moore era. However, the performance improvement of ERSFQ circuits faces two challenges. One is how to reduce the size of their feeding Josephson transmission line (FJTL), which is required to stabilize the voltage bias of the ERSFQ circuits. The second challenge is how to improve their bias margin. The measured bias margin of ERSFQ circuits is relatively smaller than for Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) circuits. This study investigates the current compensation mechanism of the FJTL and derives a formula for the compensating current ΔI in the main logic circuit by each pulse input to the FJTL. Based on the formula, a method is proposed to enhance the bias margin of ERSFQ circuits while reducing the size of FJTL by applying feeding pulses into the FJTL. We applied this method to an 8-bit ERSFQ shift register (SR), where the size of its FJTL is 4 JTLs (each JTL consists of 2 Josephson junctions). The measurement demonstrated an improvement of the bias margin from [84 %, 104 %] to [38 %, 104 %], confirming the feasibility of the proposed method. Furthermore, by comparing the measurement results of an 8-bit ERSFQ SR, where the size of its FJTL is 6 JTLs, it is demonstrated that applying this method can also reduce the size of the FJTL while maintaining a large margin.