Imec has taken another step toward making superconducting processors manufacturable at semiconductor scale. The institute’s latest NbTiN process combines record integration density with ultrafine wiring, addressing one of the technology’s biggest barriers to adoption.
Imec has demonstrated what it says is the world’s first three-metal-level niobium-titanium-nitride (NbTiN) superconducting circuit with a density of 3.8 million junctions per square centimeter, alongside 30-nanometer superconducting routing wires. The circuit marks important progress in scaling superconducting processor technology.
In conventional electronics, electrons moving through the circuit expend a lot of energy. By switching to frictionless superconducting wires, computing efficiency can be greatly improved. Because this advantage is offset by the need for cryogenic cooling, however, superconducting computing probably only shines at large scale, ie supercomputers.
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