Ambient Temperature Thermally Induced Voltage Alteration for Identification of Defects in Superconducting Electronics

As research in superconducting electronics matures, it is necessary to have failure analysis techniques to identify parameters that impact yield and failure modes in the fabricated product. However, there has been significant skepticism regarding the ability of laser-based failure analysis techniques to detect defects at room temperature in superconducting electronics designed to operate at cryogenic temperatures. In this paper, we describe preliminary data showing the use of Thermally Induced Voltage Alteration (TIVA) [1] at ambient temperature to locate defects in known defective circuits fabricated using state-of-the-art techniques for superconducting electronics.