Some of the unique macroscopic quantum properties of superconductivity will be reviewed, and their applications in electronics will be explained.
These include several well-established applications: detectors for radio astronomy used in most radio telescopes; the volt standard developed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST); sharp superconducting filters for cellular base stations now deployed in hundreds of locations; instrumentation for ultra-weak magnetic fields using the superconducting quantum interference detector (SQUID).
Other highly developed applications are nearing acceptance, including SQUID magnetocardiography and magnetoencephalography, and high-resolution, high-frequency, analog-to-digital conversion.
The status and prospects of single-flux-quantum 50-100 GHz digital integrated circuits for signal processing and computation will be reviewed. Comments will be given on current research directions in superconductor electronics, including quantum computing.