Energy-Efficient Superconducting Digital Electronics: Current Status and Perspectives
Superconducting digital integrated circuit technology, which uses single flux quanta as information carriers, is attracting significant attention as a next-generation integrated circuit platform capable of reducing the rapidly increasing power consumption of modern computing systems, including AI processing. Among various approaches, the adiabatic quantum flux parametron (AQFP) enables energy dissipation more than five orders of magnitude lower than that of CMOS integrated circuits by operating high-speed superconducting gates slowly and adiabatically. In this talk, I will present the current status of research on AQFP integrated circuit technology for applications in high-performance computing, neuro-inspired processing, and interface circuits for quantum computing. I will also discuss our work on reversible AQFP logic aimed at exploring computation with energy dissipation approaching the fundamental Landauer limit.
Biography
Nobuyuki Yoshikawa is a Professor at the Institute of Advanced Sciences (IAS), Yokohama National University (YNU), Japan, where he leads the Superconducting Electronics Laboratory. His research pioneers ultra-energy-efficient computing using superconducting integrated circuits. He is widely recognized for advancing Adiabatic Quantum-Flux-Parametron (AQFP) and Single-Flux-Quantum (SFQ) technologies, including the development of the world’s first AQFP-based microprocessor, which achieved energy consumption more than five orders of magnitude lower than conventional CMOS. He also investigates reversible superconducting logic toward the thermodynamic limits of computation. His recent efforts extend these technologies toward scalable integration for quantum computing systems and cryogenic computing platforms. Prof. Yoshikawa received the 2023 IEEE Council on Superconductivity Award for Continuing and Significant Contributions in Applied Superconductivity and is an IEEE Fellow.
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