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Applied Physics Letters

Very low noise, tightly coupled, dc SQUID amplifiers

B. Muhlfelder, J. A. Beall, Michael W. Cromar, Ronald H. Ono

Published Oct 27, 1986• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have fabricated and tested thin film, niobium edge junction, double transformer, dc superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID’s) that were stable under room-temperature storage and thermal cycling and that had very good noise performance. The input inductance, approximately 1.7 μH, was large enough to facilitate good matching to many experiments. When the SQUID was operated as a small-signal amplifier, the minimum detectable energy per unit bandwidth (Se) was 5×10−33 J/Hz at 100 kHz, referred to the SQUID loop (uncoupled). The minimum detectable energy per unit bandwidth was 1.8×10−31 J/Hz at 100 kHz, referred to the input coil. The SQUID’s had good characteristics for flux-locked operation since the small signal Se was low over a substantial range of bias current and magnetic flux. For operation in a flux-locked feedback circuit, Se was 6×10−32 J/Hz at 1 kHz.

DOI
10.1063/1.97440

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Japanese Journal of Applied Physics•May 1, 2004•3 citations
We have fabricated and tested thin film, niobium edge junction, double transformer, dc superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID’s) that were stable under room-temperature storage and thermal cycling and that had very good noise performance. The input inductance, approximately 1.7 μH, was large enough to facilitate good matching to many experiments. When the SQUID was operated as a small-signal amplifier, the minimum detectable energy per unit bandwidth (Se) was 5×10−33 J/Hz at 100 kHz, referred to the SQUID loop (uncoupled). The minimum detectable energy per unit bandwidth was 1.8×10−31 J/Hz at 100 kHz, referred to the input coil. The SQUID’s had good characteristics for flux-locked operation since the small signal Se was low over a substantial range of bias current and magnetic flux. For operation in a flux-locked feedback circuit, Se was 6×10−32 J/Hz at 1 kHz.
We have designed, fabricated, and tested a Double Transformer (DT) coupled dc SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) with low noise, an input inductance of 1μH and a smooth input-output characteristic. A transmission line model is presented to explain a resonance in the input-output characteristic of early versions of this device. Guided by the results of numerical simulations a new version of this device has been built and tested. Experimental results are presented that show that the resonance can be moved to a higher voltage by reducing the area of the SQUID loop. The voltage-external flux characteristic of some of these new devices agrees to within 10% with computer simulations. The minimum detectable energy per unit bandwidth (MDE) referred to the SQUID loop, is 10h, where h is Planck's constant. Computer simulations indicate an MDE of 6h.
The dc Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (dc-SQUID) is one of the most sensitive magnetic field sensors available. In this thesis we concentrate on its application as an amplifier. In this configuration, an input circuit of interest can be connected by means of a coupling coil. The intended application of our developed low-Tc SQUID amplifiers is the readout of the first spherical gravitational wave antenna MiniGRAIL. Using small-signal analysis as well as numerical simulations, we study the achievable signal-to-noise ratio of such sensors in practical measurements. Published theories and studies could be extended. Some interesting points treated are the influence of the often used negative feedback (flux-locked loop), an altered input impedance of the SQUID amplifier and the influence of back-action noise, which directly affects the object of interest. The altered operation of the SQUID due to the presence of the input circuit is studied in numerical experiments. Another important issue, the influence of integrated input coils on the dynamics of SQUIDs, is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The performance of our developed sensors is compared to numerical simulations on detailed models. The results give insights into the behavior, design and usage of dc-SQUIDs with integrated coils. For a SQUID with input inductances of 1.5 μH we reached a good coupled energy sensitivity of about 170 ¯h in a dilution refrigerator. Furthermore, we investigated the hot-electron effect. This effect typically limits the sensitivity of superconducting electronics at sub-Kelvin bath temperatures due to a weakened electron-phonon coupling. We performed heating experiments on thin-film resistors which are similar to the shunt resistors of the Josephson junctions used in our sensors. The suppression of the hot-electron effect via electronic thermal transport to attached cooling fins is investigated both experimentally, theoretically and numerically. The numerical technique turns out to be a useful tool for the thermal design of superconducting electronics.
An improved read-out electronics without flux modulation for dc superconducting quantum interference devices (dc SQUIDs) is presented where the preamplifier is directly coupled to the SQUID. Compared to our previous designs, the 1/f voltage and current noise levels of the preamplifier were reduced by about a factor of 4 (rms) by using bipolar matched transistors instead of operational amplifiers at the input. Three types of flux-locked-loop electronics were developed and successfully tested: a low-power (120 mW) version for large multichannel arrays, a high-speed version with a 15 MHz bandwidth and a very fast (300 ns) reset mode, and a low-noise (0.44 nV/Hz) version with a fast and precise bias reversal circuit. The flux-locked-loop electronics are compatible with each other, so that only one type of low-power (180 mW) control unit is required to operate them. All essential specifications of practical SQUID systems (noise, dynamic behavior, and temperature stability) were determined by using liquid-helium and liquid-nitrogen cooled SQUIDs, respectively.
User-friendly ultra-high-speed readout electronics for dc superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) are presented. To maximize the system bandwidth, the SQUID is directly read out without flux modulation. A composite preamplifier is used consisting of a slow dc amplifier in parallel with a fast ac amplifier. In this way, excellent dc precision and a high amplifier bandwidth of 50 MHz are achieved, simultaneously. A virtual 50 Ω amplifier input resistance with negligible excess noise is realized by active shunting, i.e., by applying feedback from preamplifier output to input via a high resistance. The white voltage and current noise levels are 0.33 nV Hz −1 and 2.6 pA Hz −1/2 , respectively. The electronics is fully computer controlled via a microcontroller integrated into the flux-locked loop (FLL) board. Easy-to-use software makes the various electronic settings accessible. A wide bias voltage range of 1.3 mV enables the readout of series SQUID arrays. Furthermore, additional current sources allow the operation of two-stage SQUIDs or transition edge sensors. The electronics was tested using various SQUIDs with input inductances between 30 nH and 1.5 µH. Typically, the maximum FLL bandwidth was 20 MHz, which is close to the theoretical limit given by transmission line delay within the FLL. Slew rates of up to 4.6 Φ 0 µs −1 were achieved with series SQUID arrays. Current noise levels as low as 0.47 pA Hz −1/2 and coupled energy sensitivities between 90 h and 500 h were measured at 4.2 K, where h is the Planck constant. The noise did not degrade when the system bandwidth was increased to the maximum value of about 20 MHz. With a two-stage set-up, intrinsic white energy sensitivities of 30 h and 2.3 h were measured at 4.2 and 0.3 K, respectively.
We present the results of an investigation of thin-film dc super conducting quantum interference device (SQUID’s) with very high energy resolution. The SQUID’s were fabricated using integrated-circuit techniques appropriate for superconducting devices. A weakly coupled SQUID with very low inductance (1 pH) had an intrinsic energy sensitivity 6×10−34 J/Hz = 0.9 h. A well-coupled SQUID (coupling constant α = 0.43) had an energy sensitivity referred to the input coil of 4.7×10−32 J/Hz = 71 h.
Arrays of dc-superconducting quantum interference devices (dc-SQUIDs) were investigated, in which each dc-SQUID element has a multiturn input coil. The dependence of flux noise on the number of turns of the input coil was studied for current amplifiers. SQUID arrays were fabricated by a Nb/AlO x /Nb Josephson tunnel junction fabrication process. Results show that the flux noise of the SQUID array amplifier does not depend on the turn number of the input coil. A SQUID array amplifier consisting of 128 dc-SQUID elements was fabricated, in which each element had a 7-turn input coil and a mutual inductance between the input coil and the SQUID loop of 460 pH. This amplifier showed an ultrahigh current resolution of 1 pA/Hz0.5 and a maximum input current of 11 µA for signals of 50 kHz, which is sufficient bandwidth for X-ray detection applications. These values correspond to a large dynamic range of 87 dB. The flux-voltage characteristics of this SQUID array, however, showed asymmetric behavior, which originated from electronic resonance in stray capacitance and the mutual inductance between the SQUID loop and the multiturn input coil.