Switching measurements on semiconductor-barrier Josephson junctions, isolated and in memory loops

We report here the use of the semiconductor-barrier Josephson junction as the switching component in high-speed digital circuits. We have measured the switching time of a single Pb-Te-Pb junction and the current-transfer time of a memory cell using such a device as the logic switch. The fastest switching time of a rather large junction (0.175×0.175 mm2) is 67 ps and the current-transfer time of a memory cell with loop inductance of 1.05 ×10−10 H is 350 ps. These measured values are comparable with those obtained for oxide tunnel junctions similar dimensions.