Superconductivity

Liquid-nitrogen-cooled CMOS circuits introduced on system level in supercomputers have improved system performance by about a factor of two due to cooling. In that same temperature range, superconducting materials have become available since the advent of high-temperature superconductors. To combine the merits of both by embedding cooled CMOS circuits in superconducting shields on the same temperature level seems manageable and might be a better choice than to use either technique independently. To make use of the outstanding properties of high-temperature superconductors requires multilevel homogeneous superconducting films of high current density, contacts, insulating dielectric films, suitable substrates on the scale of several inches, and techniques for microfabrication