550-650 GHz spectrometer development for TELIS

Pavel A. Yagoubov, W. J. Vreeling, Herman van de Stadt, Ruud W. M. Hoogeveen, Oleg V. Koryukin, V. P. Koshelets, O. M. Pylypenko, Axel Murk

Published May 1, 2005• 13 citations

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Abstract

In this paper we present design and first experimental results of the 550 650 GHz channel for the Terahertz Limb Sounder (TELIS), a three-channel balloon-borne heterodyne spectrometer for atmospheric research. This frequency channel is based on a phase-locked Superconducting Integrated Receiver (SIR). SIR is an on-chip combination of a low-noise SIS mixer with quasioptical antenna, a superconducting Flux Flow Oscillator (FFO) acting as Local Oscillator (LO) and SIS harmonic mixer (HM) for FFO phase locking. The microcircuit is designed as a quasioptical mixer. Amplification of the mixer IF signal and first stage PLL circuitry is done by InP based low noise HEMT amplifiers. Optical design analysis and first experimental results, which include FTS and noise temperature measurements, are reported. Index Terms — Josephson mixers, integrated receiver, superconducting devices

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