Researchers at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a superconducting diode (SD)–based rectifier that helps deliver direct current (DC) to superconducting classical and quantum computers. The technology can help the search for dark matter in detection circuits operating at research institutes such as CERN.
The rise of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) is projected to increase the power consumption of data centers by manifold in the coming years. Contemporary computing is powered by silicon, which can compute large amounts of information but is also not energy-efficient. The semiconductor nature of the components wastes a lot of energy, which is sent out as heat.
Superconducting electronics are a potential alternative to this problem since they can provide high-end computing solutions. However, the systems operate at a mix of ultra-low and ambient temperatures and use a lot of wiring to link these two components together.
If superconducting electronics are to replace semiconductor ones, they need to become more streamlined, something that researchers at MIT have been working on for a while.
To read more, click here.