Poles and Zeros

Cryogenic
T VERY LON
of matter and
Electronics
R. W. Schmitt, Senior Member, IEEE
temperatures many electronic properties
many electrical effects are different from
those encountered at ordinary temperatures. Cryogenic
electronics attempts to use these extraordinary phenomena for
useful electronic functions. Until a decade ago the subject was
a novel one on which an imaginative and curious mind could
exercise itself. Today it is passing the threshold of serious
commercial use.
The reason for cooling an electronic device to very low
temperatures is either to perform a function more cheaply
than is otherwise possible or to perform a function that is not
otherwise possible. I t is the first reason that prompts the de-
velopment of large superconductive computer memories; it is
the second reason that prompts the use of a solid-state maser
(operating at cryogenic temperatures) in radio astronomy and
in communication by satellite. Cryogenic operations promise
low cost on the one hand and low noise on the other.
This special issue on cryogenic electronics contains a col-
lection of articles that illustrate various types of work and
various stages of sophistication and development; it is a sam-
ple of the work and thought in the field. Some of the articles
are principally tutorial, some are reviews and some report
new. original work. The topics covered go beyond the applica-
tions already invented, in use, or being developed; besides
cryogenic electronic components, circuits, and devices, they
include properties and phenomena not yet incorporated in
applications but which might easily become the source of in-
ventions as this field expands. LYork on materials and fabrica-
tion is also represented.
Cryogenic electronics will be only as useful as the cost and
reliability of the refrigeration permits. A very Ion temper-
ature (in this issue that ordinarily means below 20 K) is a
foreign environment, abhored by nature as much as a vacuum.
But, the technology of producing a vacuum is so highly de-
veloped that no one gives a second thought to the sophisti-
cated vacuum system in the living room of almost every home.
Although it is improbable that cryogenic systems will ever be
as widespread, the expansion in use and development of cryo-
genic refrigerators since shortly after \Aorld Urar I1 has been
steady. I nstead of demonstrating the feasibility of new con-
cepts the principal goals of most cryogenic-refrigeration engi-
neers are lower costs, increased lifetime, improved reliability-
goals familiar to every engineer who works in a field that is
no longer a rare specialty. I t is almost certain that great
strides will be made toward these goals in the next few years.
Unfortunately, this issue is not a systematic and compre-
hensive survey of the whole field of cryogenic electronics.
There are several important omissions. A serious gap is the
lack of an article on the maser part of the communication
satellite system; this application of cryogenic electronics is
the first to reach commercial use. An article on this subject
could not be finished in time to meet publication schedules but
one hopes it will appear in a later issue of PROCEEDINGS.
No special articles were solicited on junction lasers or on
high-field superconducting coils as these fields have been the
subjects of extensive recent coverage in the literature. How-
ever, original, contributed papers in either of these fields were
acceptable and one such paper on novel superconducting
Helmholz coils is included. Also there is no article on the prop-
erties and uses of magnetic materials at cryogenic tempera-
tures, although there should be one in an issue on this subject.
Besides the solid-state maser, the cryogenic device nearest
actual use is the microwave ultrasonic delay line. I n 1955 the
authors of a text on sonics predicted, \Ye can place the upper
limits of industrial usefulness (of ultrasonics) at about lo6
cycles per second in gases and 109 in liquids and solids.
Above these frequencies, they felt. attenuation would be SO
large that ultrasonics would become useless. Not many years
after this confident prediction the remarkable drop in at-
tenuation of gigacycle ultrasonic waves at very low tempera-
tures was discovered. This made possible ultrasonic delay
lines at microwave frequencies, an unexpected and important
advance with uses that are being vigorously pressed.
I nvestigations of plasma effects in solids (metals and semi-
conductors) and of the microwave properties of superconduc-
tors are two further areas in which a rich variety of phenomena
are being discovered, understood and seem ready for exploita-
tion. Also, the properties of semiconductor materials at cryo-
genic temperatures are quite different from those at ordinary
temperatures and this fact will create both problems and op-
portunities as this field develops. -4rticles on these subjects
are contained in this issue.
-4 majority of the papers in this issue deal in one way or
another with superconductivity for this subject was the first
to attract the attenti on of electronics engineers to cryogenics.
I t has been almost a decade since the potential usefulness of
the cryotron was recognized; the advances during the rela-
tively short period of intervening time have been truly re-
markable and this issue reports additional important steps
that will undoubtedly lead (barring an unexpected discovery
that will supersede them) to final successful commercial use
of cyrotrons or their close relatives.
I t should be re-emphasized, perhaps, that this issue is
devoted to cryogenic electronics and does not include work on
electromechanical or electrical power equipment involving
superconductivity. Thus superconductive gyros, bearings,
motors, transformers and most aspects of high-field super-
conductors are excluded from the issue.
I t was Dr. K. Tomiyasu who conceived of this issue and
who asked me to become Guest Edi t or; his enthusiasm launched
the project with sufficient momentum that any shortcomings
can only be attributed to later faults. E. K. Gannett, Munag-
ing Edi t or, and IY. R. Crone, Assi st ant Edi t or, have, of course,
been outstandingly helpful. Rlany of the authors deserve
special priase for responding to my entreaties by adding the
job of writing these articles to already full schedules. Finally,
G. E. Nichols has my deep gratitude for his invaluable assist-
ance; without him the job could not have been done.
1091