IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium digest

A planar quasi-optical SIS receiver suitable for array applications

P. A. Stimson, Robert J. Dengler, Peter H. Siegel, Henry George LeDuc

Published Jan 2, 2003• 5 citations

Abstract

A novel planar, quasi-optical SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) receiver operating at 230 GHz is described. The receiver consists of a 2*5 array of half-wave dipole antennas with ten niobium-aluminium-oxide-niobium SIS junctions on a quartz dielectric-filled parabola. The 1.2-GHz intermediate frequency is coupled from the mixer via coplanar strip transmission lines and 4:1 balun transformers. The receiver is operated at 4.2 K in a liquid-helium immersion cryostat. Accurate measurements of the performance of single receiver elements are reported. A mixer noise temperature of 148 K DSB, receiver noise temperature of 259 K DSB, and conversion loss of 10 dB into a matched load have been obtained.>

DOI: 10.1109/mwsym.1992.188275

Related papers

A planar quasi-optical SIS receiver

P. A. Stimson, Robert J. Dengler, Henry George LeDuc +2 more

A planar, quasi-optical SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) receiver operating at 230 GHz is described. The receiver consists of a 2*5 array of half-wave dipole antennas with niobium-aluminum oxide-niobium SIS junctions on a quartz dielectric-filled parabola. The 1.4-GHz intermediate frequency is coupled from the mixer via coplanar strip transmission lines and 4:1 balun transformers. The receiver is operated at 4.2 K in a liquid helium immersion cryostat. Accurate measurements of the performance of single untuned array receiver elements are reported. A mixer noise temperature of 89 K DSB (double sideband), receiver noise temperature of 156 K DSB and conversion loss of 8 dB into a matched load have been obtained. This mixer noise temperature is approximately a factor of two larger than that of current state of the art waveguide mixers using untuned single junctions a the same frequency.>

IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and TechniquesApr 1, 199315 citations

A prototype quasi-optical SIS array receiver

P. A. Stimson, Robert J. Dengler, Henry George LeDuc +1 more

We report measurements on a prototype SIS array receiver consisting of a ten-element dipole antenna array with half square micron niobium SIS junctions. The mixer array is a completely planar, integrated device mounted on the front surface of a quartz-filled parabolic reflector. The ten mixer elements are switched into a single IF filter-amplifier chain. Results at 230 GHz show receiver noise temperatures as low as 75 K DSB, with 120 K being a typical value.>

IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium digestDec 17, 20021 citation

MM wave quasioptical SIS mixers

Qing Hu, C. A. Mears, P. L. Richards +1 more

The authors have tested the performance of planar SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) mixers with log-periodic antennas at near millimeter and submillimeter wave frequencies from 90 to 360 GHz. The large omega R/sub N/C product ( approximately 10 at 90 GHz) of the Nb/NbO/sub x//Pb-In-Au junctions requires an integrated inductive tuning element to resonate the junction capacitance at the operating frequencies. Two types of integrated tuning element were used which were designed with the aid of measurements using a Fourier transform spectrometer. Preliminary results indicate that the tuning elements can give very good mixer performance up to at least 200 GHz. An inductive wire in parallel with a 5-junction array gives a minimum mixer noise temperature of 115 K (DSB) at 90 GHz with a FWHM (full width at half maximum) bandwidth of 8 GHz. An open-ended microstrip stub in parallel with a single junction gives minimum mixer noise temperatures at 150 and 200 K (DSB) near 90 and 180 GHz with FWHM bandwidths of 4 and 3 GHz, respectively. The relatively high mixer noise temperatures compared to those of waveguide SIS mixers in a similar frequency range are attributed mainly to the losses in the optical system.>

IEEE Transactions on MagneticsMar 1, 198932 citations

A planar SIS mixer for 400-500 GHz

Rudolf Nitsch, Karl Jacobs

We present a new planar SIS mixer for array applications in the 400-500 GHz range. The mixer consists of a double dipole antenna connnected to a pair of superconducting tunnel junctions by a novel tuning and matching structure. It is mounted in the focal plane of a silicon parabola collimating the broad double dipole beams into beams with f-numbers of /spl ap/13. Four mixers were built in an array configuration on a single substrate and two of them were tested. The receiver DSB noise temperatures are below 300 K in the 456-492 GHz range. The best results are 180 K and 163 K respectively at 473 GHz.

IEEE International Conference on Terahertz Electronics (THz)Nov 27, 20020 citations

Quasi-optical log-periodic antenna SIS mixers for the 100 GHz band

Yoshinori Uzawa, Taiichiro Noguchi, Akira Kawakami +1 more

We designed and tested a quasi-optical SIS mixer that incorporates a substrate lens for the 100 GHz band. The mixer uses a planar self-complementary log-periodic antenna with an integrated tuning circuit. The antenna has a frequency independent impedance of around over several octaves. The tuning circuit consists of two SIS junctions connected in parallel through a superconducting stripline inductor for tuning out the junction capacitances and a impedance transformer for matching the junction resistance to the antenna impedance. The SIS junctions are and have an area of and a current density of . The IF output from the mixer is brought out in a balanced way at each edge of the antenna, and is coupled to a cooled low-noise amplifier through a balun transformer by using a hybrid coupler. A double-sideband receiver noise temperature less than 130 K was measured from 85 to 110 GHz. The best noise temperature was 90 K at 101 GHz, which is the same as for waveguide receivers.

Superconductor Science and TechnologyApr 1, 19965 citations

Antenna Integrated Superconducting Mixers

Ekström, Hans

This thesis investigates the prospects of some different superconducting mixers integrated with planar antennas for the millimeter and submillimeter regime. Two kinds of Superconductor/Insulator/Superconductor (SIS) tunnel junctions for use in mixers have been fabricated; Nb/PbBi edge junctions and Nb trilayer junctions. One of the very high quality trilayer mixers is currently operating in a 350 GHz radio-telescope heterodyne-receiver. The reduced sensitivity of SIS mixers for frequencies above the gap frequency (?700 GHz) of the superconductors has directed the interest towards another type of superconducting mixer device, the superconducting Hot Electron Bolometer (HEB). Various types of this device have been studied; Nb devices for scale-measurements at 20 GHz to more easily verify some of the theoretical background of the HEB, NbN waveguide devices for 100 GHz, and NbN devices integrated with planar antennas for a quasi-optical mixer at 350 GHz. Two types of planar antennas have been used; the endfire "Broken" Linearly Tapered Slotline Antenna (BLTSA) on a thin dielectric membrane, and the double dipole antenna on a quartz substrate lens. The beam pattern of the BLTSA has been examined theoretically and measured at 40 GHz with antennas supported by Kapton foil, and at 350 and 800 GHz with antennas on thin dielectric SiOxNy membranes. Measurements of the 20 GHz Nb HEB show a mixer conversion loss close to 0 dB for IF frequencies below 40 MHz. The maximum IF bandwidth given by the electron temperature relaxation time corresponds to a frequency of about 80 MHz. A DSB mixer noise temperature of only a few hundred Kelvin has been measured. Corresponding measurements of NbN devices at 100 and 350 GHz give a mixer conversion loss of about 6-10 dB and an IF bandwidth of about 700 to 1000 MHz. The output noise is found to be dominated by electron temperature fluctuations with an equivalent noise temperature of about 100 K, and a frequency dependence equal to that of the IF signal. Phenomenological expressions for conversion loss, noise, and IF impedance have been compared measurements and shows good agreement. The quasioptical NbN HEB mixers are still under development with respect to film quality and coupling to radiation, why the mixer performance of these is expected to improve.

Jan 1, 19950 citations