Superconducting Electronics

The world's most advanced single-flux-quantum (SFQ) integrated circuit process has been developed here at Lincoln Laboratory.

Photomicrograph of superconducting single-flux-quantum (SFQ) shift-register integrated circuit fabricated at Lincoln Laboratory.

Superconducting single-flux-quantum (SFQ) integrated circuits offer a combination of fast switching speed and high energy efficiency unmatched by any other digital computing technology. As the performance of conventional silicon CMOS integrated circuits approaches physical limits, SFQ technology is a leading candidate to address future high-performance computing needs. Simple high-performance small-scale SFQ digital circuits have been demonstrated. The next challenge is to increase integration scale and circuit complexity.

We're addressing this challenge by developing the world's most advanced SFQ integrated circuit fabrication processes. Our state-of-the-art Microelectronics Laboratory has enabled us to develop a novel 9-metal-layer fabrication process. Using this process, we have demonstrated an SFQ circuit with 809,120 Josephson junctions, the current world record. For next steps, we are actively developing technology to enable the next generation of SFQ process nodes, specifically adding wiring layers and reducing feature sizes.