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Electronics and Communications in Japan (Part II Electronics)

Dual‐frequency (40/100 GHz) SIS receiver for nobeyama millimeter‐wave array

Masayuki Yamamoto, K. Yamaji, Keiichi WATAZAWA, Junji Inatani, Ryohei Kawabe, Takashi Kasuga

Published Jan 1, 1989• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract The authors developed a dual‐frequency (40/100 GHz) SIS receiver with SIS quasi‐particle tunneling junction element as the mixer, for use in the millimeter‐wave array at Nobeyama Radio Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory. The SIS element used is an array composed of four series‐connected Nb/Al‐AlOx/Nb junctions. The receiver is refrigerated to 4.3 K by a closed‐cycle He refrigerator. The receiver realized a very low receiver noise temperature for a wideband, such as 50 to 80 K for 43 to 49 GHz, and 60 to 100 K for 86 to 115 GHz. A wide dynamic range is also realized. At 40 Ghz, the saturation noise temperature is 2000 to 3000 K, compared with the wideband noise. These results indicate that the SIS array element can effectively improve the mixer saturation level without degrading the receiver performance.

DOI
10.1002/ecjb.4420721206

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•Mar 1, 1996•2 citations
Abstract The authors developed a dual‐frequency (40/100 GHz) SIS receiver with SIS quasi‐particle tunneling junction element as the mixer, for use in the millimeter‐wave array at Nobeyama Radio Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory. The SIS element used is an array composed of four series‐connected Nb/Al‐AlOx/Nb junctions. The receiver is refrigerated to 4.3 K by a closed‐cycle He refrigerator. The receiver realized a very low receiver noise temperature for a wideband, such as 50 to 80 K for 43 to 49 GHz, and 60 to 100 K for 86 to 115 GHz. A wide dynamic range is also realized. At 40 Ghz, the saturation noise temperature is 2000 to 3000 K, compared with the wideband noise. These results indicate that the SIS array element can effectively improve the mixer saturation level without degrading the receiver performance.
A 110 GHz superconductor insulator superconductor (SIS) tunnel junction receiver has been developed and used in regular astronomical observations on the 4m radio telescope at the Department of Astrophysics, Nagoya University. The SIS junction consists of a sandwich structure of Nb/AlOx/Nb, and is cooled to 4.2K with a closed cycle He-gas refrigerator. The receiver exhibits a best double side band noise temperature of 17±2 K at 110GHz. The receiver has a good response over this input frequency range of 98-115 GHz.
Parallel connected for dc and IF, but in series for rf current SIS junction arrays are under investigation since 1982. Novel conception of the improved matching for both input and output mixer ports have been developed and confirmed successfully with experimental receivers in 40-180 GHz frequency range. Parallel and parallel-series combinations integrated up to 11 Nb-AlOx-Nb type SIS junctions have been tested in full height waveguide mixers. The receivers' noise temperatures Tr(DSB) I50K have been achieved in the laboratory tests across frequency range 40-150GHz. The Tr as low as 35K have been carefully measured at 145GHz. The parallel biased SIS arrays for integrated on a chip SIS receiver have been designed and tested successfully. The integrated receiver noise temperature as low as 85K was achieved at 140GHz. New SIS array design for mixer in frequency range 500-1000 GHz is presented.
A fixed-tuned SIS(Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor) mixer across 120∼180 GHz band has been developed. This mixer employs an SIS chip fabricated by Nobeyama radio observatory which consists of a series array of 6 Nb/Al-AlO/Nb junctions in a microstrip line on a fused quartz substrate. The SIS chip is placed at the center of the half-height waveguide mixer mount to have a good incoming signal coupling over the whole frequency band. No mechanical tuner was used in the SIS mixer and the RF signal and local oscillator power are injected to the mixer via a cooled cross-guide coupler. In order to prevent the IF signal loss, the If output impedance of the SIS mixer was matched to the 50 input impedance of the IF chain. Measured double sideband noise temperatures of a receiver using the SIS mixer are 32∼131 K over 120∼180 GHz band. The developed SIS mixer is now in use for radio astronomical observations on the TRAO 14 m radio telescope.
A total of 73 dual polarization superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) receivers for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have been successfully produced to observe astronomical signals in the 787-950 GHz frequency band. The receivers use two double sideband (DSB) waveguide mixers with Nb/AlOx/Nb tunnel junctions and NbTiN/SiO2/Al microstrip tuning circuits on quartz substrate. The best achieved DSB receiver noise temperature is 125 K, corresponding to about 3 hf/kBfor 4 K operation.
Abstract We have designed and experimentally evaluated a series-connected array of superconductor–insulator–superconductor (SIS) junctions in the 100 GHz-band mixer for the multi-beam receiver FOREST on the Nobeyama 45 m millimeter-wave telescope. The construction of the junction chip comprised a waveguide probe antenna, impedance-matching circuit, SIS array junction, and choke filter, which were made from a superconducting niobium planar circuit on a quartz substrate. The multi-stage impedance-matching circuit between the feed point and the SIS junction was designed as a capacitively loaded transmission line, and it comprised two sections with high (∼90 Ω) and low (∼10 Ω) characteristic impedance transmission lines. The structure of this tuning line was simple and easy to fabricate, and the feed impedance matched with the SIS junction in a wide frequency range. The signal coupling efficiency was more than 92% and the expected receiver noise temperature was approximately twice the quantum limit for 75–125 GHz based on quantum theory. The array junction devices with three to six connected junctions were fabricated and we measured their performance in terms of the receiver noise temperature and gain compression in the laboratory. We successfully developed an array junction device with a receiver noise temperature of ∼15–30 K and confirmed that the improvement in the saturation power corresponded to the number of junctions. The newly developed array junction mixer was installed in the FOREST receiver and it successfully detected the 12CO(J = 1–0) molecular line toward IRC +10216 with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope.
We report on low-noise heterodyne mixing with NbN/A1N/NbN tunnel junctions in the submillimeter-wave region for the first time. The receiver consists of the quasi-optical NbN SIS mixer with an integrated tuning circuit in which a radial short stub tuner is incorporated to resonate out the junction capacitance for RF matching and a balanced IF circuit for broadband IF matching. The prepared NbN SIS junction has a current density of 20 kA/cm 2 and is about 1 I1111 in diameter, supplying a small coC JRN product (o)CJRN = 3 at 300 GHz). The junctions showed good dc I-V characteristics, excellent submillimeter-wave responses and sensitive heterodyne mixing responses. From 254 to 350 GHz the average receiver noise temperature measured using by the standard Y-factor method was about 250 K (DSB) at 5 K. The lowest receiver noise temperature, 200 K (DSB), was obtained at around 303 GHz. Comparing NbN/A1N/NbN and Nb/A10x/Nb tunnel junction performance with the same tuning circuit showed that the frequency dependence of the receiver noise temperature agreed well in the two receivers. These results suggest that our well-controlled NbN SIS junctions can be used for terahertz mixer elements instead of Nb SIS junctions.