Advance communication between superconducting chips

2002/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Materialak
• Fisika

Communication between superconducting chips would greatly increase the speed of computers. And his team and Quentin Her, from TRW Space and Electronics Group in California, have taken a step forward in their research. In fact, they have used niobium to make circuits and have reached superconductivity at 9K.

In the year 2000 the first superconductor transistor is obtained and the next year the superconductor microprocessor, but now communication between superconductor chips is achieved. They have used liquid helium to reach this low temperature and have reached a speed of 60 gigabit per second (three times the speed reached in conventional silicon chips).

However, Constantin Likharev, an expert in superconductors for electronics at New York State University, believes that this invention has a big problem: economic. In fact, the temperatures that must be used are so low that it does not see that the investment will merit for everyday applications. Therefore, he believes that chip manufacturers should completely change the technology.

Therefore, for the moment, superconductor chips should only be used in applications that do not allow another alternative.