Josephson Arbitrary Waveform Synthesizer With Two Layers of Wilkinson Dividers and an FIR Filter

The output voltage of Josephson arbitrary waveform synthesizers (JAWS) is limited by the number of Josephson junctions (JJs) that can be driven by a single pulse-generator channel. Here, we double the number of JJs driven by one generator channel to 51 200 JJs by distributing the pulse bias between four JJ arrays by use of two layers of Wilkinson dividers. We use this single bias to generate a voltage at 1 kHz with an rms magnitude of 1 V. This voltage is quantum-accurate over an operating current range of 1.4 mA. For comparison, the operating current range of a recent design that uses a single layer of Wilkinson dividers is twice as large, but requires two pulse-bias channels to generate 1 V. We also show that we can recover this performance by incorporating in the pulse generator a finite-impulse response (FIR) filter that acts as an equalizer. The FIR filter creates a custom transfer function that compensates for the bandwidth-limited transfer function of the Wilkinson dividers. Optimizing the FIR filter parameters increases the operating current range from 1.4 to 2.7 mA. This ability to drive additional JJ arrays with a single pulse-generator channel will enable future JAWS chips and systems to achieve significantly larger output voltages. This will increase the voltage range for JAWS calibrations of ac thermal converters and improve precision voltage measurements that require quantum-accurate, stable, and distortion-free waveforms with a large signal-to-noise ratio.