Superconducting Integrated Receivers for Radio Astronomy and Atmospheric Monitoring

V. P. Koshelets, Pavel N. Dmitriev, Andrey B. Ermakov, Lyudmila V. Filippenko, Andrey V. Khudchenko, Nickolay V. Kinev, Oleg S. Kiselev, I.L. Lapitskaya, Alexander S. Sobolev, Pavel A. Yagoubov, W. Wild

Published Jan 1, 2007• 0 citations

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Abstract

comprises in one chip a planar antenna integrated with a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer, a superconducting Flux Flow Oscillator (FFO) acting as Local Oscillator (LO) and a second SIS harmonic mixer (HM) for the FFO phase locking. A new generation of the SIR devices with improved FFO performance and optimized interface between FFO and SIS/HM has been developed and comprehensively tested. To overcome temperature constraints and extend operation frequency of the all-Nb SIR we have developed and studied Nb-AlN-NbN circuits with a gap voltage Vg up to 3.7 mV and extremely low leakage currents (Rj/Rn> 30). A possibility to phase lock the Nb-AlN-NbN FFO at any frequency in the frequency range 350-720 GHz has been experimentally demonstrated. Phase–locked SIR operation over frequency range 450 – 700 GHz has been realized, spectral resolution below

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