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IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium digest

A prototype quasi-optical SIS array receiver

P. A. Stimson, Robert J. Dengler, Henry George LeDuc, Peter H. Siegel

Published Dec 17, 2002• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We report measurements on a prototype SIS array receiver consisting of a ten-element dipole antenna array with half square micron niobium SIS junctions. The mixer array is a completely planar, integrated device mounted on the front surface of a quartz-filled parabolic reflector. The ten mixer elements are switched into a single IF filter-amplifier chain. Results at 230 GHz show receiver noise temperatures as low as 75 K DSB, with 120 K being a typical value.>

DOI
10.1109/mwsym.1994.335320

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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity•Jun 1, 1997•14 citations
We report measurements on a prototype SIS array receiver consisting of a ten-element dipole antenna array with half square micron niobium SIS junctions. The mixer array is a completely planar, integrated device mounted on the front surface of a quartz-filled parabolic reflector. The ten mixer elements are switched into a single IF filter-amplifier chain. Results at 230 GHz show receiver noise temperatures as low as 75 K DSB, with 120 K being a typical value.>
A novel planar, quasi-optical SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) receiver operating at 230 GHz is described. The receiver consists of a 2*5 array of half-wave dipole antennas with ten niobium-aluminium-oxide-niobium SIS junctions on a quartz dielectric-filled parabola. The 1.2-GHz intermediate frequency is coupled from the mixer via coplanar strip transmission lines and 4:1 balun transformers. The receiver is operated at 4.2 K in a liquid-helium immersion cryostat. Accurate measurements of the performance of single receiver elements are reported. A mixer noise temperature of 148 K DSB, receiver noise temperature of 259 K DSB, and conversion loss of 10 dB into a matched load have been obtained.>
A planar, quasi-optical SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) receiver operating at 230 GHz is described. The receiver consists of a 2*5 array of half-wave dipole antennas with niobium-aluminum oxide-niobium SIS junctions on a quartz dielectric-filled parabola. The 1.4-GHz intermediate frequency is coupled from the mixer via coplanar strip transmission lines and 4:1 balun transformers. The receiver is operated at 4.2 K in a liquid helium immersion cryostat. Accurate measurements of the performance of single untuned array receiver elements are reported. A mixer noise temperature of 89 K DSB (double sideband), receiver noise temperature of 156 K DSB and conversion loss of 8 dB into a matched load have been obtained. This mixer noise temperature is approximately a factor of two larger than that of current state of the art waveguide mixers using untuned single junctions a the same frequency.>
We present a new planar SIS mixer for array applications in the 400-500 GHz range. The mixer consists of a double dipole antenna connnected to a pair of superconducting tunnel junctions by a novel tuning and matching structure. It is mounted in the focal plane of a silicon parabola collimating the broad double dipole beams into beams with f-numbers of /spl ap/13. Four mixers were built in an array configuration on a single substrate and two of them were tested. The receiver DSB noise temperatures are below 300 K in the 456-492 GHz range. The best results are 180 K and 163 K respectively at 473 GHz.
The authors have tested the performance of planar SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) mixers with log-periodic antennas at near millimeter and submillimeter wave frequencies from 90 to 360 GHz. The large omega R/sub N/C product ( approximately 10 at 90 GHz) of the Nb/NbO/sub x//Pb-In-Au junctions requires an integrated inductive tuning element to resonate the junction capacitance at the operating frequencies. Two types of integrated tuning element were used which were designed with the aid of measurements using a Fourier transform spectrometer. Preliminary results indicate that the tuning elements can give very good mixer performance up to at least 200 GHz. An inductive wire in parallel with a 5-junction array gives a minimum mixer noise temperature of 115 K (DSB) at 90 GHz with a FWHM (full width at half maximum) bandwidth of 8 GHz. An open-ended microstrip stub in parallel with a single junction gives minimum mixer noise temperatures at 150 and 200 K (DSB) near 90 and 180 GHz with FWHM bandwidths of 4 and 3 GHz, respectively. The relatively high mixer noise temperatures compared to those of waveguide SIS mixers in a similar frequency range are attributed mainly to the losses in the optical system.>
We designed and tested a quasi-optical SIS mixer that incorporates a substrate lens for the 100 GHz band. The mixer uses a planar self-complementary log-periodic antenna with an integrated tuning circuit. The antenna has a frequency independent impedance of around over several octaves. The tuning circuit consists of two SIS junctions connected in parallel through a superconducting stripline inductor for tuning out the junction capacitances and a impedance transformer for matching the junction resistance to the antenna impedance. The SIS junctions are and have an area of and a current density of . The IF output from the mixer is brought out in a balanced way at each edge of the antenna, and is coupled to a cooled low-noise amplifier through a balun transformer by using a hybrid coupler. A double-sideband receiver noise temperature less than 130 K was measured from 85 to 110 GHz. The best noise temperature was 90 K at 101 GHz, which is the same as for waveguide receivers.
We have designed, fabricated and evaluated a quasi-optical SIS receiver with NbN/AlN/NbN tunnel junctions in the submillimeter-wave region. The receiver consists of a planar self-complementary log-periodic antenna and MgO hyperhemispherical lens with an anti-reflection cap for RF optics, NbN SIS junctions and a radial short stub tuner to resonate out its capacitance for RF matching. The prepared NbN SIS junction has a current density of 20 kA/cm/sup 2/ and is about 1 /spl mu/m in diameter, supplying a small /spl omega/C/sub J/R/sub N/ product (/spl omega/C/sub J/R/sub N/=3 at 300 GHz). From 297 to 356 GHz the average double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperature measured by using the standard Y-factor method was about 200 K. The lowest receiver noise temperature, 167 K (DSB), was obtained at around 303 GHz. These results suggest that our NbN SIS junctions can be used for terahertz mixer elements instead of Nb SIS junctions.