The genesis of SIS mixers - the legacy of John Tucker in radio astronomy

Author

Kerr, A.R. ; Pan, S.-K. ; Lyons, W.G.

Author_Institution

Nat. Radio Astron. Obs., Charlottesville, VA, USA

fYear

2015

fDate

17-22 May 2015

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

In 1979, John Tucker showed that if the nonlinearity of a mixer diode is so sharp that its conductance changes significantly over a voltage increment hf/e, then its mixer characteristics are no longer described by classical mixer theory (e.g, as normally used for Schottky diode mixers). Under these conditions a resistive diode mixer can have conversion gain and/or negative port impedances. Tucker´s quantum mixer theory provided the theoretical foundation for a revolution in low-noise coherent receivers for radio astronomy in the millimeter and sub-millimeter bands.

Keywords

Schottky diode mixers; radioastronomy; superconductor-insulator-superconductor mixers; John Tucker; SIS mixer genesis; Schottky diode mixers; classical mixer theory; low-noise coherent receivers; mixer diode; quantum mixer theory; radio astronomy; resistive diode mixer; sub-millimeter band; superconductor-insulator-superconductor mixer; voltage increment; Lead; Magnetic tunneling; Mixers; Niobium; Schottky diodes; Superconducting devices; SIS junction; SIS receiver; millimeterwave; mixer; radio astronomy; submillimeter-wave;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium (IMS), 2015 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Phoenix, AZ

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2015.7166809

Filename

7166809