Speaker
Description
Niobium superconducting circuitry requires a 4K environment for the materials to exhibit their enabling quantum mechanical properties. Thus superconducting electronics (SCE) has a highly symbiotic relationship to cryocoolers: SCE technologies cannot transition into the hands of fielded war-fighters without coolers capable of mobile operation and vibration survival. A mass commercial application at 4K requires miniaturization to under a cubic foot and idiot-proof design, an even more challenging standard. Without a guarantee of a solid market, the motivation to commercially fund development of a rugged 4K cooler is much weaker. This talk will focus on 4K, Nb based logic circuits and will illustrate the progress toward system demonstrations made over the past 15 years. These will illustrate the improvements still needed from the cooler and leads communities. Then other cryogenic applications of superconductivity based on thin film technologies and requiring < 20K environments will be reviewed. How those applications stress their coolers in the same or different ways as the Nb logic circuits will be discussed.