Cryo-compatible Electro-optic Interconnect for Superconducting Circuit Readout
Abstract
While superconducting electronics (SCE) can enable digital logic at clock speeds of over 100 GHz useful for wideband RF receivers, t,heir main drawbacks are: i) they are only operational at cryogenic temperature and ii) they output very weak mV pulses. Electronic a,mplifiers are typically used for readout which adds significant heat load while adding prohibitive thermal noise. Encoding informati,on from SCE onto optics can alleviate these challenges through two key ways: (i) optics is conducive to the very high bandwidth, (ii,) optical fibers have much superior thermal insulation than coaxial fibers minimizing heat load. However, this scheme necessitates h,ighly-sensitive electro-optic modulators, which dont exist yet. We propose two novel systems to carry out the electro-optic readout, of SCE: i) a commercial modulator followed by a photonic thresholder, where the thresholder relaxes the modulation efficiency needs,, ii) novel cryogenic electro-optic modulators that can simultaneously carry out electro-optic modulation while improving the signal,-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this project, we will investigate cryo-compatible photonic devices to optimize the electro-optical convers,ion efficiencies down to fJ/bit with speeds of tens of GHz and negligible heat load in the cryostat. We will also investigate intell,igent signal processing on the RF spectrum via photonic spiking neural networks to extract useful information out of the RF signals., Our work will enable efficient, high-bandwidth and low-latency readout and processing of wideband RF signals captured via supercond,ucting receivers.Approved for Public Release
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 13, 2022
- Source ID
- N000142212527
Entities
People
- Paul Prucnal
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Trustees of Princeton University
- United States Navy