Superconducting magnetic field programmable gate array
AssigneesUniversity of Southern California, SeeQC, Inc.
InventorsNaveen Katam, Oleg Mukhanov, Massoud Pedram
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Abstract
A superconducting field programmable gate array (SuperFPGA) apparatus for implementing a superconducting electronic circuit includes a superconducting logic core that includes a plurality of superconducting single flux quantum configurable logic blocks having regular Josephson junctions and inductors that are interconnectible to each other and to input/output terminals of the superconducting electronic circuit. The SuperFPGA apparatus also includes a superconducting routing network, a zero-static-power dissipation biasing network, magnetic Josephson junctions, and a magnetic Josephson junction programming layer.
Claims33
A superconducting field programmable gate array (SuperFPGA) apparatus for implementing a superconducting electronic circuit, comprising:
- a superconducting logic core comprising a plurality of superconducting single flux quantum configurable logic blocks that includes regular Josephson junctions and inductors that are interconnectible to each other and to input/output terminals of the superconducting electronic circuit;
- a superconducting routing network comprising a collection of transmission lines, programmable connection blocks, and programmable switchboxes for realizing connections among the superconducting single flux quantum configurable logic blocks and input/output terminals;
- a zero-static-power dissipation biasing network for supplying desired amounts of biasing currents to the superconducting logic core and superconducting routing network;
- magnetic Josephson junctions used selectively in the zero-static-power dissipation biasing network to enable in-field programmability of the said superconducting logic core and superconducting routing network by changing amounts of locally-provided biasing currents;
- and
- a magnetic Josephson junction programming layer comprising of decoders and superconducting current-carrying lines to enable and effect selective setting of critical current levels of the magnetic Josephson junctions.
A method of enabling in-field programmability of a superconducting field programmable logic circuit, comprising:
- receiving programming data describing a desired functionality of the superconducting field programmable logic circuit;
- decoding the programming data to produce a bit stream for programming individual configurable logic blocks and interconnections among configurable logic blocks and primary inputs/outputs of the superconducting field programmable logic circuit;
- and
- processing the bit stream by selectively changing a magnitude of a current flowing in a superconducting line to cause a change in a critical current level of a nearby magnetic Josephson junction, the change causing a corresponding a change in biasing current level supplied to a target superconducting programmable logic or interconnect element wherein the interconnections that are programmed include programmable connection blocks and programmable switchboxes that are programmable to provide selective connectivity among input or output routing channels and configurable logic blocks.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.