US Patent 10331163 Superconducting integrated circuits with clock signals distributed via inductive coupling

Superconducting integrated circuits with clock signals distributed via an inductive coupling and related methods are provided. A method includes providing a D flip-flop having a clock terminal coupled to receive clock pulses from a clock line, a data input terminal, and a data output terminal. The D flip-flop may further include a first Josephson junction (JJ) coupled between a first terminal and a second terminal. The D flip-flop may further include a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) coupled between a third terminal and a fourth terminal, where an inductive loop, formed between the first JJ and the SQUID, is configured to in response to receiving a first clock pulse, store a fluxon when a state of the input data signal is high, and is configured to in response to receiving a second clock pulse to annihilate the stored fluxon when a state of the input data signal is low.