Milliohm resistor for RQL circuits

• US 10,734,568 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2018
• Issued: 08/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Inventors: Gingrich, Eric C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Whalen, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US16/171,049
• Publication Number:
  US 20200136008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 649 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 10/00 Nanotechnology for information processing, storage or transmission, e.g. quantum computing or single electron logic
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 10/00 Quantum computing, i.e. information processing based on quantum-mechanical phenomena
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 19/1954 with injection of the control current
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 60/10 Junction-based devices
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 60/12 Josephson-effect devices
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 60/805 for Josephson-effect devices
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 60/85 Superconducting active materials
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 69/00 Integrated devices, or assemblies of multiple devices, comprising at least one superconducting element covered by group H10N60/00

Abstract

A milliohm resistor is fabricated as a Josephson junction device that contains ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic material of sufficient thickness to render the device entirely resistive between terminals. The device can have a resistance on the order of milliohms and can be consume a much smaller chip footprint than resistors of the same resistance fabricated using conventional resistive materials. Because the device can be fabricated without modification to processes used to fabricate reciprocal quantum logic (RQL) circuitry, it can easily be incorporated in RQL circuits to mitigate flux trapping or to perform other functions where very small resistances are needed. In particular, the device can burn off circulating currents induced by trapped flux without affecting the transmission of SFQ pulses through RQL circuitry.

Claims

1. A resistor comprising:

a first terminal made of a superconducting metal;

a second terminal made of a superconducting metal; and

a Josephson junction device electrically connected between the first and second terminals, the Josephson junction device comprising ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic material,

wherein the resistor has a resistance value of between about one milliohm and about fifty milliohms.

2. The resistor of claim 1, having a roughly square fabrication area, the area having a diameter of less than about five micrometers.

3. The resistor of claim 1, wherein the resistance value is between about one milliohm and about twenty milliohms.

4. The resistor of claim 1, wherein the resistance value is between about one milliohm and about five milliohms.

5. The resistor of claim 1, wherein the Josephson junction device comprises a synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) barrier comprising two ferromagnetic layers separated by a spacer layer.

6. The resistor of claim 5, wherein the two ferromagnetic layers are made of the same material and are of about the same thickness.

7. The resistor of claim 6, wherein the two ferromagnetic layers are each at least 10 nanometers thick.

8. The resistor of claim 5, wherein the magnetizations of the two ferromagnetic layers are in an antiparallel alignment state with respect to each other.

9. The resistor of claim 5, wherein the spacer layer separating the two ferromagnetic layers is made of one of elemental copper, elemental ruthenium, elemental iridium, or elemental rhodium, and has a thickness of between about 0.5 nanometers and about one nanometer.

10. The resistor of claim 5, wherein the ferromagnetic layers are made of one of elemental cobalt, elemental iron, a cobaltiron alloy, a cobaltiron-boron alloy, a nickel-iron alloy, a nickel-iron-niobium alloy, a nickel-iron-chromium alloy, or a nickel-iron-copper alloy.

11. The resistor of claim 5, further comprising a first layer-growth-promoting outer spacer layer and a second layer-growth-promoting outer spacer layer, each outer spacer layer being arranged between a respective one of the ferromagnetic layers and a respective one of the terminals.

12. The resistor of claim 1, wherein the Josephson junction device comprises an antiferromagnetic barrier layer.

13. The resistor of claim 12, wherein the antiferromagnetic barrier layer is made of one of ferromanganese, ferrous oxide, ferric oxide, nickel(II) oxide, manganese(II) oxide, manganese(IV) oxide, chromium(III) oxide, or iridium manganese.

14. The resistor of claim 12, further comprising a first layer-growth-promoting outer spacer layer and a second layer-growth-promoting outer spacer layer, each outer spacer layer being arranged between the antiferromagnetic barrier layers and a respective one of the terminals.

15. The resistor of claim 12, wherein the antiferromagnetic barrier layer has a thickness of between about ten nanometers and about fifty nanometers.

16. A reciprocal quantum logic (RQL) circuit comprising the resistor of claim 1 in series with an inductive loop, the resistor being configured to mitigate flux trapping in the inductive loop.

17. A method of mitigating flux trapping in a reciprocal quantum logic (RQL) circuit, the method comprising:

fabricating a resistor in an inductive loop in the RQL circuit,

wherein the resistor has a resistance of between about one milliohm and about fifty milliohms,

wherein the resistor has a footprint of less than twenty-five square micrometers, and

wherein the resistor reduces to zero, in between about one millisecond and about ten microseconds, current circulating in the inductive loop as the result of trapped flux.

18. A chip-fabricated device comprising:

a first superconducting metal layer forming a first galvanic terminal;

a second superconducting metal layer forming a second galvanic terminal; and

between the superconducting metal layers, a barrier comprising one of;

a synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) comprising two ferromagnetic material layers separated by a spacer layer, the ferromagnetic material layers arranged to have antiparallel magnetizations with respect to each other, or

an antiferromagnet layer;

wherein the device has a resistance of between about one milliohm and about fifty milliohms, and

wherein the device has a fabrication footprint of less than twenty-five square micrometers.

19. The device of claim 18,

wherein the barrier comprises the SAF,

wherein the ferromagnetic layers are each at least ten nanometers thick and are made of one of elemental cobalt, elemental iron, a cobalt-iron alloy, a cobalt-iron-boron alloy, a nickel-iron alloy, a nickel-iron-niobium alloy, a nickel-iron-chromium alloy, or a nickel-iron-copper alloy, and

wherein the spacer layer separating the two ferromagnetic layers is made of one of elemental copper, elemental ruthenium, elemental iridium, or elemental rhodium.

20. The device of claim 18,

wherein the barrier comprises the antiferromagnet layer, and

wherein the antiferromagnetic barrier layer is made of one of ferromanganese, ferrous oxide, ferric oxide, nickel(II) oxide, manganese(II) oxide, manganese(IV) oxide, chromium(III) oxide, or iridium manganese.