RSFQ-based D/A converter for AC voltage standard

Digital to analog converters based on the Josephson effect are promising for voltage standards, because they produce voltage steps with ultimate precision and stability. In this paper, we describe a project to develop a Josephson D/A converter designed for synthesizing a sinusoidal waveform with metrological accuracy. The D/A converter is based on RSFQ (Rapid Single Flux Quantum) logic circuits, and consists of a frequency multiplier (FM), a pulse distributor (PD), and a number of voltage multipliers (VMs). Each VM circuit, corresponding to the n-th bit digital code, multiplies the number of SFQ pulses by a factor of 2/sup n/. By gating the input SFQ pulses from the FM to the VMs using the PD circuits, a programmable output voltage is obtained. Possible sources of uncertainties in the measurement of the rms value of the synthesized sine wave are discussed.