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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Design, Fabrication and Characterization of a Submillimeter-Wave Niobium HEB Mixer Imaging Array Based on the “Reverse-Microscope” Concept

Lei Liu, Qun Xiao, Haiyong Xu, J.C. Schultz, Arthur W. Lichtenberger, Robert M. Weikle

Published Jun 1, 2007• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Prototype one-dimensional (1-D) superconducting hot-electron bolometer (HEB) imaging mixer arrays with four pixels, designed for operation at 585 GHz, and based on slot-ring antennas arranged in the "reverse-microscope" configuration have been fabricated and implemented. Electromagnetic simulations with Agilent's Momentum software package have been performed to study the self- and mutual-impedances of the slot-ring antenna (SRA) array corresponding to various element spacings. Moreover, the element SRA off-axis radiation patterns (with an extended silicon lens) have been calculated using ray-tracing techniques and the imaging angular resolution has been predicted. Fabrication of the arrays and HEB elements are discussed, and measurements for a single mixer element are presented, yielding a double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperature of approximately 650 K at 585 GHz.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2007.897405

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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity•May 27, 2009•16 citations
Prototype one-dimensional (1-D) superconducting hot-electron bolometer (HEB) imaging mixer arrays with four pixels, designed for operation at 585 GHz, and based on slot-ring antennas arranged in the "reverse-microscope" configuration have been fabricated and implemented. Electromagnetic simulations with Agilent's Momentum software package have been performed to study the self- and mutual-impedances of the slot-ring antenna (SRA) array corresponding to various element spacings. Moreover, the element SRA off-axis radiation patterns (with an extended silicon lens) have been calculated using ray-tracing techniques and the imaging angular resolution has been predicted. Fabrication of the arrays and HEB elements are discussed, and measurements for a single mixer element are presented, yielding a double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperature of approximately 650 K at 585 GHz.
Low noise receivers using quasi-optical superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers have been designed, fabricated and measured in the terahertz (THz) frequency range for THz applications in astronomy and cosmology. The NbN HEB mixers consist of a planar complementary antenna and several nanometer (nm) thick NbN bridge connecting across the antenna's inner terminals on high-resistivity Si substrates. A double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperature of 664 K at 0.76 THz, 920 K at 1.6 THz, 1630 K at 2.5 THz and 1710 K at 3.1 THz has been obtained without corrections and no anti-reflection (AR) coating on the surface of the lens.
This thesis investigates the prospects of some different superconducting mixers integrated with planar antennas for the millimeter and submillimeter regime. Two kinds of Superconductor/Insulator/Superconductor (SIS) tunnel junctions for use in mixers have been fabricated; Nb/PbBi edge junctions and Nb trilayer junctions. One of the very high quality trilayer mixers is currently operating in a 350 GHz radio-telescope heterodyne-receiver. The reduced sensitivity of SIS mixers for frequencies above the gap frequency (?700 GHz) of the superconductors has directed the interest towards another type of superconducting mixer device, the superconducting Hot Electron Bolometer (HEB). Various types of this device have been studied; Nb devices for scale-measurements at 20 GHz to more easily verify some of the theoretical background of the HEB, NbN waveguide devices for 100 GHz, and NbN devices integrated with planar antennas for a quasi-optical mixer at 350 GHz. Two types of planar antennas have been used; the endfire "Broken" Linearly Tapered Slotline Antenna (BLTSA) on a thin dielectric membrane, and the double dipole antenna on a quartz substrate lens. The beam pattern of the BLTSA has been examined theoretically and measured at 40 GHz with antennas supported by Kapton foil, and at 350 and 800 GHz with antennas on thin dielectric SiOxNy membranes. Measurements of the 20 GHz Nb HEB show a mixer conversion loss close to 0 dB for IF frequencies below 40 MHz. The maximum IF bandwidth given by the electron temperature relaxation time corresponds to a frequency of about 80 MHz. A DSB mixer noise temperature of only a few hundred Kelvin has been measured. Corresponding measurements of NbN devices at 100 and 350 GHz give a mixer conversion loss of about 6-10 dB and an IF bandwidth of about 700 to 1000 MHz. The output noise is found to be dominated by electron temperature fluctuations with an equivalent noise temperature of about 100 K, and a frequency dependence equal to that of the IF signal. Phenomenological expressions for conversion loss, noise, and IF impedance have been compared measurements and shows good agreement. The quasioptical NbN HEB mixers are still under development with respect to film quality and coupling to radiation, why the mixer performance of these is expected to improve.
Superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers at terahertz (THz) have been designed, fabricated and measured for applications in astronomy and cosmology. The NbN HEB mixer consists of a planar antenna and an NbN bridge connecting across the antenna's inner terminals on high-resistivity Si substrates. Double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperatures of 698 K at 0.65 THz, 904 K at 1.6 THz, 1026 K at 2.5 THz and 1386 K at 3.1 THz have been obtained at 4.2 K without corrections and using changeable input local oscillation (LO) power to eliminate the affects of direct detection and instability of the LO power. The excess quantum noise factor beta of about 4 has been estimated using a quantum noise model.
Low noise terahertz (THz) receivers based on superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers have been designed, fabricated and measured for applications in astronomy and cosmology. The NbN HEB mixer consists of a planar antenna and an NbN bridge connecting across the antenna's inner terminals on a high-resistivity Si substrate. To eliminate the influence of direct detection and instability of the local oscillation (LO) power, a wire grid has been used to change the input LO power for compensating the shift of bias current during Y-factor measurement. The double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperatures at 4.2K without corrections have been measured from 0.65 to 3.1THz. The excess quantum noise factor β of about 4 has been obtained, which agrees well with the calculated value. Allan variance of the HEB has been characterized, and Allan time TA longer than 0.4s is obtained. We also estimated the temperature resolution of the HEB from the Allan variance and obtained the minimum temperature resolution of 1.1K using a Gunn oscillator with its multipliers at 0.65THz as an LO source.
Low noise receivers based on superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers have been designed, fabricated and measured in the terahertz (THz) frequency range for applications in astronomy and cosmology. The NbN HEB mixer consists of a planar antenna and an NbN bridge connecting across the antenna's inner terminals on high-resistivity Si substrates. Double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperatures of 920 K at 1.6 THz and 1630 K at 2.5 THz have been obtained at 4.2 K without corrections. Effects of Parylene C AR coating on the lens have been studied; with such a coating a lowest DSB receiver noise temperature of 1135 K at 2.5 THz has been obtained at 4.2 K.