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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Development of a Dual Polarization SIS Mixer With a Planar Orthomode Transducer at 350 GHz

Kuan‐Yu Liu, Ming-Jye Wang, Chao-Te Li, Tse-Jun Chen, Sheng‐Cai Shi

Published Jan 18, 2013• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A multipixel array equipped with dual-polarization superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction mixers at approximately 350 GHz is considered to improve the efficiency and survey speed of a telescope. This study develops a compact mixer with a planar orthomode transducer as a key component. Signals coming from a circular waveguide are separated into two polarizations via orthogonal waveguide probes, and then transmitted to the junctions through the tuning circuit. To suppress resonance, metallic blocks confine the RF signals within the circular waveguide, and a 2-μm-thick silicon nitride membrane, on which all devices were implemented, was suspended across the circular waveguide. The orthomode transducer, simulated with a three-dimensional electromagnetic simulator, has a cross-polarization of less than -20 dB between 306 and 367 GHz. The IF circuit consists of a low pass filter, coplanar waveguides, and a transition to coaxial. The return loss of the IF circuit is less than -20 dB up to 16 GHz from both simulations and measurements. The superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction mixers have been fabricated with quality factor (Rsg/Rn) of 8 and the double-side-band receiver noise temperatureTrxis approximately 120 K between 320 and 360 GHz.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2013.2241171

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A multipixel array equipped with dual-polarization superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction mixers at approximately 350 GHz is considered to improve the efficiency and survey speed of a telescope. This study develops a compact mixer with a planar orthomode transducer as a key component. Signals coming from a circular waveguide are separated into two polarizations via orthogonal waveguide probes, and then transmitted to the junctions through the tuning circuit. To suppress resonance, metallic blocks confine the RF signals within the circular waveguide, and a 2-μm-thick silicon nitride membrane, on which all devices were implemented, was suspended across the circular waveguide. The orthomode transducer, simulated with a three-dimensional electromagnetic simulator, has a cross-polarization of less than -20 dB between 306 and 367 GHz. The IF circuit consists of a low pass filter, coplanar waveguides, and a transition to coaxial. The return loss of the IF circuit is less than -20 dB up to 16 GHz from both simulations and measurements. The superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction mixers have been fabricated with quality factor (Rsg/Rn) of 8 and the double-side-band receiver noise temperatureTrxis approximately 120 K between 320 and 360 GHz.
A heterodyne receiver incorporating superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers has been designed to cover the frequency range from 400 to 520 GHz of the Submillimeter Array (SMA). Various tuning circuits have been employed to resonate out the geometric capacitance of the junction and provide impedance matching to the waveguide probe. Our measurements indicated that a receiver noise temperature of around 90 K, with the contributions from the input noise and intermediate frequency (IF) noise estimated to be around 60 K and 10 K, respectively. SIS mixers integrated with planar orthomode transducers (OMT) have also been designed at 345 GHz for dual polarization detections, and results from the 3-dimensional (3-D) electromagnetic (EM) simulations are presented.
Abstract We report the design of a compact dual-polarization on-chip superconductor–insulator–superconductor receiver for array applications. The planar-circuit receiver chip is comprised of the entire radio frequency (RF) signal processing chain with three main circuit components alongside some auxiliary circuits: (1) a polarization splitting 4-probe orthomode transducer (OMT) that couples the RF and local oscillator signal from free space to the chip via a drilled feedhorn; (2) two hybrids that recombine the power of each polarization from the two sets of orthogonal OMT probes; and (3) twin-junction Nb/AlOx/Nb mixers that downconvert the recombined signals to the intermediate frequency. We ensure that the four side walls of each pixel are free from obscuration, using only the top and bottom of the pixel for various connections. Consequently, the design is extendable to a large format array. In this paper, we present the detailed design of the on-chip receiver, including extensive heterodyne simulations and its potential extension into a large format array.
We have fabricated prototype superconductor integrated circuits (ICs), which accommodate planar orthomode transducer (OMT) and balanced superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers operating at D-band (125-163 GHz). The fabrication of the ICs is different from the conventional SIS mixer fabrication process in several aspects because of new features and components being introduced and incorporated. In particular, very flat silicon membranes that mechanically support the planar OMT and the waveguide probes for local oscillator coupling were formed with a combination of dry and wet etching methods to completely remove the handle layer and the buried oxide layer of the silicon on insulator substrates. We also applied an anodization passivation of the surface of the ground plane and a via-hole etching process with an i-line stepper in the formation of low-leakage SIS junctions. The SIS junctions of moderately good quality have been fabricated with an average quality factor as high as 18, which indicate the integrity of the junction definition with the complex fabrication of ICs.
We present the design and results of characterization of a new sideband separating (2SB) mixer for 800-950 GHz, based on superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions. This is the first waveguide 2SB SIS mixer demonstrated at such a high frequency. The design is following the classical quadrature hybrid architecture, meanwhile additional attention was put on the reduction of reflections in the RF structure in order to minimize the RF imbalance, to achieve a high image rejection ratio (IRR). The RF waveguide block was manufactured by micromilling and populated by single-ended SIS mixers developed earlier for upgrade of the CHAMP+ high-band array on the APEX telescope. These SIS mixers have double-sideband (DSB) noise temperatures from 210 to 400 K. The assembled 2SB mixer yields a SSB noise temperature from 450 to 900 K, with an IRR above 15 dB in 95% of the band. Comparing the DSB and the SSB sensitivities, we find that the waveguide losses are as low as expected and do not exceed 0.6 dB. The presented mixer is a prototype for use in a 2SB dual polarization receiver planned for deployment on the APEX telescope.
In this paper, we describe the design, fabrication, and the performance of a low-noise dual-polarized quasi-optical superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer at 550 GHz. The mixer utilizes a novel cross-slot antenna on a hyperhemispherical substrate lens, two junction tuning circuits, niobium trilayer junctions, and an IF circuit containing a lumped element 180/spl deg/ hybrid. The antenna consists of an orthogonal pair of twin-slot antennas, and has four feed points, two for each polarization. Each feed point is coupled to a two-junction SIS mixer. The 180/spl deg/ IF hybrid is implemented using a lumped element/microstrip circuit located inside the mixer block. Fourier transform spectrometer measurements of the mixer frequency response show good agreement with computer simulations. The measured co-polarized and cross-polarized patterns for both polarizations also agree with the theoretical predictions. The noise performance of the dual-polarized mixer is excellent giving uncorrected receiver noise temperature of better than 115 K (double sideband) at 528 GHz for both the polarizations.
Large-format heterodyne focal plane arrays require highly integrated receiver architectures while maintaining low noise and sufficient sideband rejection, which remains challenging for superconducting SIS mixers at millimeter wavelengths. In this work, we demonstrate, for the first time, a monolithic dual-polarization sideband-separating superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer operating at 2 mm wavelengths (125-163 GHz) on a silicon-on-insulator substrate. The integrated SIS mixer achieves a sideband rejection ratio exceeding 10 dB over the 4-8 GHz intermediate-frequency (IF) band across most of the radio-frequency (RF) range, with a minimum single-sideband (SSB) receiver noise temperature as low as approximately 60 K. As a key building block of the hybrid planar integration (HPI) architecture, this result verifies the feasibility of highly integrated large-format heterodyne focal plane arrays, providing a practical path toward substantially expanding the field of view of millimeter and submillimeter-wave radio telescopes.