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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Fabrication of Superconductor Integrated Circuits of D-Band Dual-Polarization Balanced SIS Mixers

Shohei Ezaki, Wenlei Shan, Shin’ichiro Asayama, Takashi Noguchi

Published Mar 4, 2019• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have fabricated prototype superconductor integrated circuits (ICs), which accommodate planar orthomode transducer (OMT) and balanced superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers operating at D-band (125-163 GHz). The fabrication of the ICs is different from the conventional SIS mixer fabrication process in several aspects because of new features and components being introduced and incorporated. In particular, very flat silicon membranes that mechanically support the planar OMT and the waveguide probes for local oscillator coupling were formed with a combination of dry and wet etching methods to completely remove the handle layer and the buried oxide layer of the silicon on insulator substrates. We also applied an anodization passivation of the surface of the ground plane and a via-hole etching process with an i-line stepper in the formation of low-leakage SIS junctions. The SIS junctions of moderately good quality have been fabricated with an average quality factor as high as 18, which indicate the integrity of the junction definition with the complex fabrication of ICs.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2019.2902985

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We have fabricated prototype superconductor integrated circuits (ICs), which accommodate planar orthomode transducer (OMT) and balanced superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers operating at D-band (125-163 GHz). The fabrication of the ICs is different from the conventional SIS mixer fabrication process in several aspects because of new features and components being introduced and incorporated. In particular, very flat silicon membranes that mechanically support the planar OMT and the waveguide probes for local oscillator coupling were formed with a combination of dry and wet etching methods to completely remove the handle layer and the buried oxide layer of the silicon on insulator substrates. We also applied an anodization passivation of the surface of the ground plane and a via-hole etching process with an i-line stepper in the formation of low-leakage SIS junctions. The SIS junctions of moderately good quality have been fabricated with an average quality factor as high as 18, which indicate the integrity of the junction definition with the complex fabrication of ICs.
We present the design of an integrated dual-polarisation superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer operating at ALMA Band 10 frequency range. All the RF components, including the orthomode transducer (OMT), the quadrature hybrid and the SIS mixer circuits, are designed as superconducting planar circuits to form a single planar mixer chip. The mixer circuits will be fabricated using standard thin film deposition technology on an ultra-thin silicon-on-insulator (Sol) substrate. In this paper, we discuss in detail the design of the various RF components that make up the complete dual-polarisation SIS mixer chip, and provide the predicted performance using rigorous electromagnetic modelling. The optimised designs of these components are then integrated in a superconducting quantum mixer circuit modelling (SuperMix) environment for assessing the performance of the heterodyne parameters of the mixer such as mixer gain and noise temperature.
A multipixel array equipped with dual-polarization superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction mixers at approximately 350 GHz is considered to improve the efficiency and survey speed of a telescope. This study develops a compact mixer with a planar orthomode transducer as a key component. Signals coming from a circular waveguide are separated into two polarizations via orthogonal waveguide probes, and then transmitted to the junctions through the tuning circuit. To suppress resonance, metallic blocks confine the RF signals within the circular waveguide, and a 2-μm-thick silicon nitride membrane, on which all devices were implemented, was suspended across the circular waveguide. The orthomode transducer, simulated with a three-dimensional electromagnetic simulator, has a cross-polarization of less than -20 dB between 306 and 367 GHz. The IF circuit consists of a low pass filter, coplanar waveguides, and a transition to coaxial. The return loss of the IF circuit is less than -20 dB up to 16 GHz from both simulations and measurements. The superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction mixers have been fabricated with quality factor (Rsg/Rn) of 8 and the double-side-band receiver noise temperatureTrxis approximately 120 K between 320 and 360 GHz.
Abstract We report the design of a compact dual-polarization on-chip superconductor–insulator–superconductor receiver for array applications. The planar-circuit receiver chip is comprised of the entire radio frequency (RF) signal processing chain with three main circuit components alongside some auxiliary circuits: (1) a polarization splitting 4-probe orthomode transducer (OMT) that couples the RF and local oscillator signal from free space to the chip via a drilled feedhorn; (2) two hybrids that recombine the power of each polarization from the two sets of orthogonal OMT probes; and (3) twin-junction Nb/AlOx/Nb mixers that downconvert the recombined signals to the intermediate frequency. We ensure that the four side walls of each pixel are free from obscuration, using only the top and bottom of the pixel for various connections. Consequently, the design is extendable to a large format array. In this paper, we present the detailed design of the on-chip receiver, including extensive heterodyne simulations and its potential extension into a large format array.
We present a 380-520 GHz balanced superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer on a single silicon substrate. All radio-frequency (RF) circuit components are fabricated on a 9μ9 μ9μm thick membrane. The intermediate frequency (IF) is separately amplified and combined. The balanced mixer chip, using Nb/Al/Al2_{2}2​O3_{3}3​/Nb SIS junctions, is mounted in a tellurium copper waveguide block at 4.2 K using Au beam lead contacts. We find uncorrected minimum receiver double-sideband noise temperatures of 70 K and a noise suppression of up to 18 dB, measured within a 440-495 GHz RF and a 4-8 GHz IF bandwidth, representing state-of-the-art device performance.
Abstract : Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) tunnel junction mixers are known to provide ultra-high sensitivity receiver applications above 30 GHz. In this two year (Phase II) program, HYPRES, in collaboration with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, have developed novel fully integrated SIS mixer circuits, and demonstrated a unique high efficiency cooling system. The integrated SIS mixer chip contains, aside from the actual mixer elements, passive tuning components, an IF filter, a coplanar transmission line, and a waveguide coupler, necessary components heretofore realized off-chip. Fabrication of the integrated mixer required development of a nine level process and optimization of the process dependent electrical parameters of the SIS devices. The device performs efficiently in the range of 75-115 GHz. A novel dewar-based cooler, which makes use of the extremely low thermal conductivity of the fused silica chip substrate to achieve an incremental thermal load of 25 mW, was fabricated and demonstrated. Such a cryostat allows relatively long term unattended operation of SIS, or other, cryogenic devices.
A heterodyne receiver incorporating superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers has been designed to cover the frequency range from 400 to 520 GHz of the Submillimeter Array (SMA). Various tuning circuits have been employed to resonate out the geometric capacitance of the junction and provide impedance matching to the waveguide probe. Our measurements indicated that a receiver noise temperature of around 90 K, with the contributions from the input noise and intermediate frequency (IF) noise estimated to be around 60 K and 10 K, respectively. SIS mixers integrated with planar orthomode transducers (OMT) have also been designed at 345 GHz for dual polarization detections, and results from the 3-dimensional (3-D) electromagnetic (EM) simulations are presented.