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Electronics Letters

Frequency conversion in hysteretic HTS microwaveSQUIDs at 3 GHz

Matthias Hein, Heinz J. Chaloupka, J. Mitterer, P. Seidel

Published May 9, 1996• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Two-tone excitation at 3 GHz of hysteretic YBa2Cu3O7 microwave SQUIDs provide general information on the suitability of such devices for low-power signal processing, e.g. signal detection and frequency conversion. Intermodulation effects, which are expected to characterise the nonlinear dynamic microwave response of HTS films, are also extracted from the data.

DOI
10.1049/el:19960583

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Two-tone excitation at 3 GHz of hysteretic YBa2Cu3O7 microwave SQUIDs provide general information on the suitability of such devices for low-power signal processing, e.g. signal detection and frequency conversion. Intermodulation effects, which are expected to characterise the nonlinear dynamic microwave response of HTS films, are also extracted from the data.
The issue of intermodulation distortion in superconducting devices for rf and microwave applications is discussed. The classical frequency conversion theory for nonlinear two-port devices in the small signal limit is shown to apply to microstrip resonators regardless of their geometry and material. Two tone, third order intermodulation measurements allow more sensitive detection of nonlinearity compared to surface impedance measurements, provided a low noise, spurious free experimental setup is adopted. Measurements carried out on high quality Nb meanderline microstrip resonators show that at very low power level nonlinearity is dominated by intrinsic device properties. Film defects start to play a predominant role above a critical power level that strongly depends on the defect’s nature.
Some results of an investigation of nonlinear behavior of NbN and YBa2Cu3O7-x films at microwaves are presented. Nonlinear microwave properties of superconducting films are analyzed on the basis of dynamic Current Voltage Characteristics (CVC) measured from the film response to the short duration video pulse. Conversion loss of the microwave signal into the intermediate frequency signal under various local oscillator power has been obtained from this analysis. The experimental data for the mixing of two microwave signals are described. Mixing effect was observed on superconducting NbN and YBa2Cu3O7-x film elements in microbridge and coplanar line forms. Conversion loss of about 20 dB was obtained in the running-wave regime.
The response of nonlinear metamaterials and superconducting electronics to two-tone excitation is critical for understanding their use as low-noise amplifiers and tunable filters. A new setting for such studies is that of metamaterials made of radio frequency superconducting quantum interference devices (rf-SQUIDs). The two-tone response of self-resonant rf-SQUID meta-atoms and metamaterials is studied here via intermodulation (IM) measurement over a broad range of tone frequencies and tone powers. A sharp onset followed by a surprising strongly suppressed IM region near the resonance is observed. Using a two time scale analysis technique, we present an analytical theory that successfully explains our experimental observations. The theory predicts that the IM can be manipulated with tone power, center frequency, frequency difference between the two tones, and temperature. This quantitative understanding potentially allows for the design of rf-SQUID metamaterials with either very low or very high IM response.
The authors evaluate the frequency dependence of the nonlinear response in high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−x thin films by simultaneously measuring the nonlinear intermodulation products and harmonic generation in broadband superconducting transmission lines at 76K. The frequencies of the two-tone incident signal are set to produce spurious signals from 1to21GHz. They extract a nonlinear term ∣ΔR2+jωΔL2∣ by applying a model of spurious signal generation in superconducting transmission lines to their measurement results. They found that this nonlinear term follows a linear dependence on frequency, indicating a dominant contribution of the nonlinear inductance ΔL2 over the nonlinear resistance ΔR2, (ωΔL2⪢ΔR2), for the superconducting nonlinear response.
First we report on the microwave characteristics of the third order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) in a High-Tc Superconductor (HTS) Josephson Junction (JJ) Downconverter at 12 GHz. We have successfully developed high quality nonlinear YBCO microbridge Josephson junctions for such an active MMIC as a mixer with RF, LO, IF and bias filters, which have been fabricated on (100) MgO substrates with 20 mm X 20 mm X 0.5 mm dimensions. The minimum conversion loss of the JJ mixer is 11 dB at very small local microwave input power LO equals -20 dBm which is two order less than a Schottky diode mixer. Consequently, this small optimum LO power gives the small rf input power at which the output IF power of the YBCO mixer saturates. Two-tone third-order intercept point (IP3) performance is a significantly important figure of merit typically used to define linearity of devices and circuits. The rf input power equals -15 dBm at the IP3 point is obtained for the YBCO mixer at 15 K and LO equals 10.935 GHz with -22 dBm. We have successfully measured the dependence of IMD3 on temperature, bias current, and LO power.
We have successfully fabricated and tested a high temperature superconducting (HTS) sigma-delta modulator for analogue-to-digital conversion. This is the first demonstration of a GHz sampling A-to-D in HTS. The 15-junction single-flux-quantum (SFQ) circuit, fabricated using an epitaxial multilayer HTS process with YBCO/Co-YBCO/YBCO edge junctions, was internally clocked at 27 GHz and used to convert a 5.01 MHz signal. The modulator demonstrated a spur-free dynamic range of more than 75 dB. Two-tone measurements with 5.01 MHz and 5.51 MHz signals demonstrated third-order intermodulation products to be lower than -59 dBc. Demonstration of a functional HTS modulator represents a significant milestone in the development of high dynamic range ADCs suitable for such applications as surveillance radar.