We demonstrate the use of a single three-terminal superconducting-nanowire device, called the nanocryotron (nTron), as a digital comparator to combine SFQ circuits with mature semiconductor circuits such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuits. Since SFQ circuits can digitize output signals from general superconducting devices and CMOS circuits can interface existing CMOS-compatible electronics, our results demonstrate the feasibility of a general architecture that uses an nTron as an interface to realize a ‘super-hybrid’ system consisting of superconducting detectors, superconducting quantum electronics, CMOS logic gates and memories, and other conventional electronics. A full description of the publication may be found here.

Citation:

Qing-Yuan Zhao, Adam N. McCaughan, Andrew E. Dane, Karl K. Berggren, Thomas Ortlepp.“A nanocryotron comparator can connect single-flux-quantum circuits to conventional electronics,” Supercond. Sci. Technol., vol. 30, no. 4, p. 044002, 2017.