Development of RSFQ Logic Circuits and Delay Time Considerations in Circuit Design

Due to high speed operations and ultra low power consumptions RSFQ logic circuit is a very good candidate for future electronic device. The focus of the RSFQ circuit development has been on the advancement of analog-to-digital converters and microprocessors. Recent works on RSFQ ALU development showed the successful operation of an 1-bit block of ALU at 40 GHz. Recently, the study of an RSFQ analog-to-digital converter has been extended to the development of a single chip RF digital receiver. Compared to the voltage logic circuits, RSFQ circuits operate based on the pulse logic. This naturally leads the circuit structure of RSFQ circuit to be pipelined. Delay time on each pipelined stage determines the ultimate operating speed of the circuit. In simulations, a two junction Josephson transmission line's delay time was about 10 ps, a splitter's 14.5 ps, a switch's 13 ps, a half adder's 67 ps. Optimization of the 4-bit ALU circuit has been made with delay time consideration to operate comfortably at 10 GHz or above.