Imec Reports NbTiN Josephson Junction Circuits at 3.8 Million Junctions per cm² and 30nm Interconnects at ASC 2026
At the 2026 Applied Superconductivity Conference (ASC), imec presented a three-metal-level (3ML) niobium-titanium-nitride (NbTiN)-based Josephson junction circuit that achieves circuit design densities of 3.8 million junctions per cm². The presentation also included demonstration of 3ML NbTiN routing with superconducting wires scaled to 30nm linewidth. These results form part of imec’s NbTiN-based superconducting technology research platform for joint R&D with industry partners on next-generation high-performance computing (HPC) and AI applications.
Imec’s superconducting digital program centers on CMOS-compatible process technology, design, and 2.5D and 3D heterogeneous integration. The program addresses applications in HPC and AI as well as quantum compute control logic, photonics, and neuromorphic computing. It brings together foundries, system companies, and hyperscalers around industry requirements in these areas.
Superconducting technology offers potential gains over state-of-the-art CMOS in energy efficiency (100x), compute density (1,000x), and broadcast bandwidth (1,000x). At the device level, Josephson junction circuits provide fast, low-energy logic. Superconducting interconnects deliver zero electrical resistance for data movement at low energy and with reduced signal losses.
Conventional niobium (Nb)-based supercon...