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A full-band waveguide SIS receiver with integrated tuning for 75-100 GHz

Conference · · IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)
OSTI ID:5922086
; ; ;  [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Dept. of Applied Physics
  2. Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (US)
This paper reports on the performance of a broadband SIS receiver with no mechanical tuning elements was scale modelled and tested. The mixer mount had a broadband waveguide to microstripline transition consisting of a 4-step Chebychev single ridge transformer. The last step of the ridge connected the waveguide to a microstripline circuit. The on-chip circuit consisted of a microstripline, which transmitted the rf and the local oscillator signals to the SIS mixer. Some chips included a thin film strip inductor in parallel with the mixer. Both the SIS element and the inductor had rf grounds provided by 90{degrees} radial stubs. The inductor tuned out the junction capacitance to allow operation over the full frequency band. The SIS element can be a single junction or series array using Nb/AlO{sub x}/Nb trilayer tunnel junctions with areas as small as 0.5 {mu}m{sup 2} and V{sub m}(2mV) = 39 mV. Preliminary results indicated a DSB receiver noise temperature of 65-80 K across the band measured at 4.4 K with an internal cryogenic rf hot/cold source and with T{sub if} = 21 K. With another device, we achieved a mixer noise temperature of 35 K at 100 GHz increasing to 45 K at 79.5 and 110 GHZ. Coupled mixer gain of up to +3 dB and negative dynamic resistance on the first photon step were observed. The lowest noise temperature was obtained for an untuned single junction mixer at 80 GHz; T{sub R} = 41 K and T{sub M} = 20 K were measured.
OSTI ID:
5922086
Report Number(s):
CONF-900944--
Conference Information:
Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States) Journal Volume: 27:2
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English