Grounding positions of superconducting layer for effective magnetic isolation in Josephson integrated circuits

Mutual inductances between two superconducting strip lines coupled through a grounded shield layer are evaluated by both experiments and numerical calculation. A conventional superconducting quantum interference device method on a Nb Josephson integrated circuit chip is employed for experiments. Four test circuits are designed to investigate the effects of ground contacts. Grounding the shield layer at one point or at two points located perpendicular to the line direction does not improve the shielding effect, whereas grounding at two points located parallel to the line direction reduced the mutual inductance by 67%. Mutual inductances calculated using an inductance extraction program, FASTHENRY, agree with the experimental results. Numerical results of current distributions in the shield layers demonstrate that the enhanced shielding current improves the magnetic isolation.