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Electronics Letters

Adjustable microstrip transformer for use with Josephson devices in mm-wave ICs

Thomas F. Finnegan, O. H. Soerensen

Published Jan 22, 1981• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A simple remotely adjustable cryogenic impedance transformer employing superconducting inverted microstrip circuits is described. The scheme is particularly suitable for efficiently coupling low impedance (0.1–5 Ω) thin-film devices (e.g. Josephson junctions) in planar microwave integrated circuits to waveguide or other superconducting and semiconducting devices at millimetre wavelengths. Preliminary results obtained at 8 mm are presented.

DOI
10.1049/el:19810057

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arXiv:1404.1792•Applied Physics Letters•Nov 18, 2013•53 citations
A simple remotely adjustable cryogenic impedance transformer employing superconducting inverted microstrip circuits is described. The scheme is particularly suitable for efficiently coupling low impedance (0.1–5 Ω) thin-film devices (e.g. Josephson junctions) in planar microwave integrated circuits to waveguide or other superconducting and semiconducting devices at millimetre wavelengths. Preliminary results obtained at 8 mm are presented.
Three different schemes for coupling to low impedance Josephson devices have been investigated. They all employ superconducting thin-film microstrip circuit techniques. The schemes are: (i) a quarterwave stepped impedance transformer, (ii) a microstrip resonator, (iii) an adjustable impedance transformer in inverted microstrip. Using single microbridges to probe the performance we found that the most primising scheme in terms of coupling efficiency and useful bandwidth was the adjustable inverted microstrip transformer.
We present a 4 : 1 superconducting transmission-line impedance transformer for cryogenic applications. The device transforms 25 Ω in the coplanar waveguide to 6.25 Ω in the microstrip and is designed to operate at 20 mK. Calibrated measurements in a dilution refrigerator demonstrate a -3 dB bandwidth from 1.6 to 13 GHz. In a modified Ruthroff design, a small capacitor is integrated at the input as a direct-current block, making it suitable for biasing and matching to low-impedance active circuits, such as superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) amplifiers.
The design, operation and details of construction of a fully shielded microwave-integrated-circuit holder suitable for use with thin-film superconducting microstrip circuitry including couplers, filters, impedance transformers and devices such as Josephson junctions are described. Several simple microwave coupling schemes for use with Josephson junction 2e/h frequency-to-voltage transducers illustrate the flexibility of the microstrip approach for coupling to thin-film Josephson junctions and semiconductor devices at cryogenic temperatures.
Multisection superconducting microstrip transformers with designed output impedances below 0.1 Ω have been fabricated via precise photolithographic techniques to investigate the electromagnetic properties of Nb-Nb oxide-Pb tunnel junctions. The low-impedance transformer sections incorporate a rf sputtered thin-film Ta-oxide dielectric, and the reproducible external coupling achievable with this type of geometry makes possible the systematic investigation of electromagnetic device parameters as a function of tunneling oxide thickness.
We report the efficient coupling of a 50 Ω microwave circuit to a high impedance conductor. We use an impedance transformer consisting of a λ/4 co-planar resonator whose inner conductor contains an array of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), providing it with a tunable lineic inductance L∼80 μ0, resulting in a characteristic impedance ZC∼1 kΩ. The impedance matching efficiency is characterized by measuring the shot noise power emitted by a dc biased tunnel junction connected to the resonator. We demonstrate matching to impedances in the 15 to 35 kΩ range with bandwidths above 100 MHz around a resonant frequency tunable between 4 and 6 GHz.