Designing Minimalist Superconductor Circuits: Logic, Interconnects, and Memory

Superconductor electronics have long been considered a potential competitor or complement to silicon technologies, dating back to the cryotron era in the 1950s. Nevertheless, the promise has remained largely unrealized---partly because silicon reached economies of scale first and partly because superconductor circuits have yet to fully capitalize on the opportunities intrinsic to their physics. The latter will be the focus of this talk, marking a deliberate departure from mimicking the silicon status quo. Specifically, we argue for: (1) a minimal, fabrication-friendly logic set; (2) redesigned interconnect interfaces that lower Josephson-junction overhead; and (3) delay-line memories based on passive transmission lines, leveraging kinetic inductance instead of contending with geometric-inductance limits. We will present simulation data and initial experimental results demonstrating the feasibility of this approach with Single Flux Quantum (SFQ)-based circuits and highlight architectural opportunities that emerge when superconductor circuits are designed to "listen to the technology."