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IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium digest

S-parameter measurements and applications of superconducting flux flow transistors

J. Martens, VINCENT M. HIETALA, T. E. Zipperian, David S. Ginley, Chris P. Tigges, Julia M. Phillips

Published Dec 9, 2002• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Microwave two-port S-parameter measurements and modeling were performed on superconducting flux flow transistors. These transistors, based on the magnetic control of flux flow in an array of high-temperature superconducting weak links, can exhibit significant available power gain at microwave frequencies (over 20 dB at 7-10 GHz in some devices). The input impedance is largely inductive, while the output impedance is resistive and inductive. These devices are potentially useful in numerous applications, including matched amplifiers.>

DOI
10.1109/mwsym.1991.147243

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IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices•Feb 1, 1988•11 citations
Microwave two-port S-parameter measurements and modeling were performed on superconducting flux flow transistors. These transistors, based on the magnetic control of flux flow in an array of high-temperature superconducting weak links, can exhibit significant available power gain at microwave frequencies (over 20 dB at 7-10 GHz in some devices). The input impedance is largely inductive, while the output impedance is resistive and inductive. These devices are potentially useful in numerous applications, including matched amplifiers.>
Microwave two-port S-parameter measurements and modeling of superconducting flux flow transistors are presented. The transistors, based on the magnetic control of flux flow in any array of high temperature superconducting weak links, exhibit significant available power gain at microwave frequencies (over 20 dB at 7-10 GHz in some devices). The input impedance is largely inductive while the output impedance is both resistive and inductive. It is shown that the characteristics of these devices are useful in numerous applications including matched amplifiers, phase shifters and active impedance convertors.>
The noise parameters of a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) flux flow transistor made of TlBaCaCuO operating at 77 K and 3-5 GHz were experimentally determined. It is assumed that the dominant noise mechanism of the device, which is based on an array of weak links with a magnetic control line, is due to the statistical nature of flux nucleation and motion in the links. The noise parameters dictate the dependence of the noise figure on the source impedance, and are calculated by measuring source impedances. Sensitivity analysis is used to estimate the accuracy of the measurements. The measurements indicate a minimum noise figure of less than 1 dB at 3 GHz.
Superconducting flux flow transistors (SFFTs) have recently been used in a W-band amplifier operating from 91 to 98 GHz and in an invertor configured as an oscillator operating at 86 GHz. These SFFTs consist of three weakened YBaCuO links in parallel. The links are about 1- mu m wide, 3- mu m long, and 20-nm thick (relative to an electrode thickness of about 200 nm). The links are biased above their local critical field so that vortices flow through the links in accordance with the Lorentz-type force supplied by the bias. The 'gate' is a control line located proximate to the link system and supplies a local magnetic field. Above a critical current, flux flow begins and the device enters the active region characterized by a transresistive response to control current and a finite output resistance. A flux flow invertor circuit can consist of 2 SFFTs: both devices are in parallel with the current bias and the input is a control current to one device.
The dynamics of fluxons in the vortex flow transistor (VFT) has been much studied. The fluxon transit time determines the fundamental speed limit of operation. Since fluxons can travel at the velocity of electromagnetic waves in the junction, the VFT has the potential for operating in high frequency systems ( ≈ 100 GHz). However, owing to the low input and output impedance of the VFT, use of the device in a conventional circuit would be quite limited. A distributed amplifier configuration consisting of many VFTs has been proposed to remedy the problems of low impedance levels. However, the realization of such an amplifier circuit at microwave or millimetre wave frequencies depends on obtaining a circuit model. In this paper, microwave superconducting VFT distributed amplifiers using the balanced control technique is reviewed. This kind of amplifier has the advantage that the capacitive feedthrough effect is decreased to a negligible extent. This is the major limiting factor for high frequency applications. The self-field effect which makes the current step inclined is reduced by injecting bias current only around the region of one end of the junction thus obtaining steeper I- V characteristics. With the asymmetric geometry, the slope of the current step is about one hundred times steeper than those obtained with the conventional overlap geometry. Owing to the diamagnetic behaviour of the Josephson junction, a little of the magnetic field induced by the current in the control line is allowed to penetrate the junction. Thus, the transresistance rm of a VFT is very small. Some methods for maximizing rm and minimizing the output impedance r0 also appear in this review. The feasibility of fabricating VFT distributed amplifiers using low-Tc superconducting material has been demonstrated. The power gain of the amplifier can be as high as 15 dB with a flat frequency response.
Josephson flux-flow transistors based on 0-32/spl deg/ [001]-tilt YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/ bicrystal junctions have been fabricated with Au loops as the control current lines. In order to measure the S-parameters of the transistors, no matching elements are implemented and 50 Omega coplanar lines are used as the input and output ends of the transistors. The rf properties of the transistors have been modeled on an HP microwave CAD design system, with the junction parameters taken from our dc measurements. Simulations indicate that the transistors can have a maximum stable gain of 20 dB at 7 GHz and 6 dB around 35 GHz under matched conditions. An 'on-wafer' transmission-reflection-load (TRL) method is used for calibrating the S-parameters of the transistor. A low temperature microwave probe station has been built: a pair of microwave probes inside a cryostat are moveable in the xyz-directions. Together with a Wiltron 360B vector network analyzer, this setup provides a convenient way for doing on-wafer characterization of the transistors in the frequency range from 40 MHz to 60 GHz, and in the temperature range from 20 to 80 K.>
Vector S-parameter measurements of the superconducting vortex flow transistor (VFT) are presented. The measurements were obtained for frequencies up to 100 MHz on VFTs that had a calculated transmit-time cutoff frequency of 5 GHz. An equivalent circuit model that includes calculations of the VFT transresistance, input inductance, and feedthrough capacitance is derived from these measurements. The measurements are limited to an upper frequency of 100 MHz due to crosstalk in the low-impedance system.>