2906

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 27, NO. 2, MARCH 1991

A NEW SIMULATOR FOR JOSEPHSON CIRCUITS WITH LOSSY TRANSMISSION LINES

M. Morisuc

'-,S. Hayashi *, A. Kanasugi * and T. Van Duzcr

* Dept. of Electronic Engineering

Saitama University
Urawa. Japan 338

+*

**Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

University of California
Berkeley. USA

Abstract

A network simulator for Josephson circuits is described and

its performance is compared with SPICE. The simulator proposed
here can simulate large scale networks containing citlicr lossy or
lossless transmission lines and nonlinear lumped elements such ;IS
Josephson junctions. The transmission line treatment is ccimplctcly
general but with constant distributed parameters. and all lumpcd
elements may be nonlinear. This paper l'ocuscs o n the simulation 0 1
the transmission lincs: the technique lor this simulation is Ixrscd o n
the linearity of the elements of the transmission line. The prop;igating
waves arc divided into short pulscs represented by tho sum ol I w o
step functions delayed with respect to each other. The equations lor
the treatment of the transmission lines arc given and some c s m p l c
simulations are presented. The numci-ical metbod 101-handling the
nonlinear elements at the nodes will be reported i n ;Iseparate paper.
Emphasis is placed on evaluation of the simulator in
comparison with SPICE. It is shown that lor circuits with long lossy
transmission lines, thc present simulator can be eppi-eciably l'astcr
than SPICE in which thc lines would have to be rcprcscntcd h y ii
cascadc of lumped elements.

.....
.....

.....

....

Introduction
Recently, intensive studies have hccn made o n simulation 0 1
networks containing transmission lines and lumped elements
including Josephson junctionsill. The SPICE simulator has lor some
years been supplied with a Josephson modcl (so-called JSPICE) and
some newer work has resulted in a faster program. JSIMIII. For
essentially lossless lines, these prugrams employ ii simple delay to
represent the transmission line. For lossy lines they would have to use
a cascade of lumped elements. The number nccdcd lo accurately
represent the line may be large for long lines, thus requiring long
computation times and large storage. The technique prcscntcd her
faster way to handle lossy lines.
The simulation technique is based o n the principle that a
propagating wavc of arbitrary term can be treated as ii collcction oC
short pulses, each of which can be represented by the s u m of two step
functions of opposite sign and displaced in time from each other by
the width of the pulsel~l.As a result, the propagated pulse a t the
receiving cnd o i the line can be obtained by a theoretical analysis.
which leads to saving of compulcr timc.
An effort has been made in making the simulalion program iis
general as possible. Although this simulaticin technique is used !'or
designing high speed digital systems with Josephson ,junctions, i t is
also applicable lor a general transmission line network composed 0 1
Si elements.
In this paper the principle of simulation is discussed and sonic
examples of simulations are illustrated. Emphasis is p1;iccd on the
evaluation o l the perliirmance of the simulator iii conip:irison U ith
JSPICE. It is clcarly shown that our prcscntcd simulator improwh the
computation time over JSPICE by a significant amount for circuits
with long lossy transmission lines.
'

Hli
f-- H2i

@@

Fig. 2 Nonlinear lumped circuit.

a,

Model and Equation

The modcl considered here is shown in Fig. I . Here, Eo is the
input pulse, R(I is the input resistance, Ro(J') is the load resistance at
the node J', Jk(J) is the number of branched transmission lines a t the
node J, and Ig(J) is the input current through the nonlinear lumped
circuit as shown in Fig.2.
The equations describing thc transmission lines in Fig. I are
as hllows.

Manuscript received September 24, 1990.

Fig. I The modcl of large scale distributed parameter

networks consisting of lossy transmission lines and
nonlinear lumped circuits.

Fig.? An) wdvcform propagating along transmi

cdn be reprewnted by wmmation ot pulse compc
positive and ncgailvc step tunctions.

0018-9464/91/0300-2906$01.00 0 1991 IEEE

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2907

Assuming vj(x.t) and i;(x,t) are the voltage and current on

tr:insmission line ;it the point x and the time t of the node j, the
I'und;iincntal cquations lor the lines are given by

bll(x,i) =

(1)

RI. L,, Cj. and Gi arc the distributed parameters of the

ti-:iiismission line. The solutions of Eq.( 1) become

where, the

Whcrc. Fli(x,t) and Glj(x.t) denote the waves propagating along the
liiic i n the positive directions for voltage and current. respectively.
:ind F?i(x,t) ancl G2i(x,t) arc the waves in the negative directions for
voll:igc and current. In simulation we treat an outgoing wave with
iirbitrary w:ivcform o n the transmission line as a collection of pulses
with small width which consists of a positive step I'unction and a
ncg;itivc step function offset by the pulse width. Fig2 shows the
di;igr;im of the waveform for simulation. On this assumption, we can
solve Eq.(l) by ii [heoretical method to obtain the solution ol' the
propagating volt;igc on the line when a step function voltage is
;ipplicd to the infinite transmission line.
Subslituting Eq.(2) into Eq.(l) we can get F I , F2, G1, and
(2i n Ihc discrete time domain as l~~llows,

(5)
where

*=

' b. c,
C-

p(t) =

(t

JO(cr1 t2-

(* )zI 1

(6)
Jo and Ji arc the B e s d tunctions of Zero order and Fir\[ order,
respectively. At the node J, the lbllowing equations hold by t'iking
into the conwkralion 01 the outgoing dnd reflected pulses.
For voltdgc
FlI(1,,L ) + F2,(Il,

) = Flk,
I=

1, 2,

I(0,

+ F2k,

I(o,

, Jk[l)

(7)

For current
I?i(x,I) = 0
>

m,-n..
1-1

+n -n ,)
~

2 :12i(x,i)

H2;(v - ( m > - n > ) + I -i)

m,-n,

: >

i=O

G Il(X,t) =

ro
!
,

.-

n;

From Eqs.(3)-(8), we obtain thc following cquations

-11;

1 h l~(x,i)

HI,(

$.

-nL+ I - i)

: C

n,

i=(l

H2;(

[ Gll(l;, L ) -

k=2

b2,(Ij,ki). H2,( Y

+ I - k)

(i= 1)

a?,(x,i) = a l l ( l ~- x,i)
(4)

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2908

On the other hand, the following equations hold a t the sending end
-

Ro. io = Flj(O, Y

) + F2j(0, v )

j = 1 , 2, . . . , J ~ ( v )

LI.

( 13)

101 = 102 : SIL

RI,

Then, the outgoing pulse Hlj at the sending end can he calculated
from Eq.(3), Eq.(13) and Eq.(14).
The reflected wave of H2j at the rcceiving end o l a linc can bc
obtained from the following conditions

101

* 102

: AIL

Fig.5 Equivalent circuit of SQUID for simulation.

Fl;(l;, v)+F2;(1j, v ) = i,j. R&)

Gli(l,, Y

) - G2j(ll, U

i,;

(15)
Thus, the computer simulation for transmission linc networks
can be performed.

200

g o
r)
3

Example of simulation
For an example of the simulator, we have made simulations to
investigate how a pulse propagates in tree structured networks
composed of SQUIDs as shown in Fig.4. Fig.5 shows the equivalent
circuit of SQUID gate of which the threshold characteristics is shown
in Fig.6. Here, ICI =Ic2=200~A,Ci=C2=0.8pF, Li =Lz=2.8pH,
Rd=2Q, and M=2.24pH. All Josephson junctions in SQUIDs have
the same nonlinear current-voltage charactcristics as shown in Fig.7.
The circuit parameters of the networks arc chosen as follows;
for clectrical source,
Ei1=12V, Rr)=20kQ, RQ=I252, Ic=250~A,R=30Q
for transmission line

R=3OQ/m, L= 1 FHim, C=70pF/m, G= ImS/m,M=O, I= 1 Opm

Fig.8 shows the results 01simulation, where the top trace is
the input pulse waveform and the second is the input control current
waveform to each SQUID, and the third to the fifth traces illustrate
the simulated propagating pulsc wavelorm at the node
respectively. It is seen from thcse results that a puis
transmitted from the input terminal to the rcceiving cnd. I
the above mentioned example, we have simulated so
networks such as a tree structured transmission linc nctw
CIL gates
and a ladder type transmission linc network with filcy
CIL gates in series.

-200
-400
0
400
Control currcnt [yA]
Fig.6 Threshold characteristics of Asymmetrical SQUID.

Io = 5 0 (PA]
R\g = 540 [RI
Rnn = 32 [RI
Vgnp = 2.8 [ m V ]
VCI= 0.05 [mV]
CI = 0.2 [pF]
0

Vgap

Voltage
Fig.7 Nonlinear I-V Characteristics of Josephson junction.

/
I

--Fig.4 Tree structured networks composed of SQUIDs.

Time
I ti0[ ps]

F1g.S Simulated waveforms by our simulator

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2909

Table I Comparison of CPU times or our simulator with JSPICE

Iroposed
Simulator
CPU time
(sec)
12
I4
IS
21
27

I Speed Improvement factor I

JSPICE

R fl
Eo

~ Ci2m

(sec)

25

20
28
57

37
54

132

10
13

89

111
184
430
704
1187

1.67
2.00
3.17
4.24
4.89

9.25
13.14
23.59
33.52
43.96

(b) Equivalent circuit of

transmission line
Fig.9 A transmisson line and its
equivalent circuit.
(a) Model

Cornoarison with SPICE

In order to evaluate the performancc of the simulator proposed

lici-c.. we have compared it with that of JSPICE. It is required for
JSPICE to deal ;I transmission line as a collection of idcal lumped

cii-cuil segments for lossy lines. Here we rcprescnt a transmission line

Ior .ISPICE a s B collection of j-t typc equivalent circuit with m
scgnicnts ;IS shown in Fig.9. A small value of m for simulation
rcsults in ;I distorted waveform diffcrent from a real waveform.
I:ig. I O shows the elfcct of m to a simulated waveform for a simple
circtril iis shown in Fig.9, where R=30Q/m, L=0.2pH/m,
C=5OpF/m. G=lmS/in. and l=lcm. It is seen from these results that
Ihc choice 01 m=4 may lead to a reasonable simulated waveform
whilc the simulatctl result for m = l givcs a false onc. We have made
sirnulalions using our simulator and JSPICE for the same Iaddcr type
1r;iiisniissioii network with SQUIDs in series as shown in Fig.1 I . In
siiiiulalioii. iiuinbcr of transmission lincs has been changed from 2 to
IO, and the numbel- of m for JSPICE has been chosen as m = l , 10
;ind 100 rcspcctivcly. Table I shows the comparison of CPU limes of
our simuhtor with JSPICE. Here, we have used HITAC M-260K,
;ind the program of our simulator was written by FORTRAN. The
otilpu~s from o u r simulator and JSPICE with m=4 and IO are
idcn 1;C i l 1.
Fui-thcrmorc, we have made comparison of CPU times for a
I:iddcr typc network where CIL gates are adopted instead of SQUID
plus. Fig. I2 shows the equivalent circuit of CIL gate for simulation.
A comparison 01 CPU time bctwecn our simulator and JSPICE is
shown in Fig.13. This indicates the CPU time of our simulator is
much smdlci- than JSPICE. This speed improvement in our simulator
is due Lo the lhcorclical calculation o f B transmitted pulse on a
tr;insiiiission line. The saving in CPU time become rcmarkahle
exponentially as lhc increase oT the number of transmission line in
sei-ies ;incl number of segments of a line for JSPICE. The speed
improvement factors lor the JSPICE model of (I= 10 and m=10) and
( I = I O and m= 100) arc ahout 5 and about 80, respectively. Therefore
we woultl cxpccl better results for Josephson LSI which are much
more complex.

200

Fig. 10 Comparison of simulated wavelorms

among the number oi section.
- -- --- -

R
EO n(

Fig. 11 Ladder type transmission network with SQUIDS.

200
Control Current [ pA]

(a) Equivalent circuit of CIL (b) Threshold characteristics of CIL

Fig. 12 Model of Current Injection Logic used for simulation.
1500

Conclusion
We have shown that lhc technique introduced here for general
transmission lincs permits a significant saving in computation time for
circuits containing long, lossy transmission lines in comparison with
JSPICE. in which such lines must be represented hy a cascade of
discrclc elements. In lulure work we plan to make a comparison with
the ncwcr program JSIM, which is faster than JSPICE.

100
Times[ps]

+ our simulator
+ JSPICE (m= 10)

;1000

G
Reference

II I

E.S.Fung and T. Van Duzcr : A Josephson Intcgratcd Circuit

Simulator (JSIM) for Supcrconductivc Electronics Application,
Er[. Ahsir~rictof 1989 1111.Super.cotzdirctiriiyElec1r.onic.r ConJ.,
pp. 407-4 I O ( 1989)
121 M.Morisuc and T.Kojima : Simulation for Large Scale
D ist r i buled Parameter Ne t wor ks, Proc. of the / M A CSilFA C
l i i i . Syiip. or1 Modeling arid Siriiulrztiori or Distribii~ed
P w ~ I I I KSy.s~eriis,
, ~ ~ ~ . pp. 727-732( 1987)
I .3 Fl~.R.Ghccwala: Design of 2.5-Micromcter Josephson Current
Iiijcclion Logic (CL),
IBM J. of R&D, 24. 2, pp. 130-142

500

0
0

I0

Number of Lines
Fig. 13 CPU time required for simulation by
our simulator in comparison with that by JSPICE.

( 1))

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