Title :
Fabrication and characterization of niobium diffusion-cooled hot-electron bolometers on silicon nitride membranes
Author :
Datesman, Aaron M. ; Schultz, Jonathan C. ; Lichtenberger, Arthur W. ; Golish, Dathon ; Walker, Christopher K. ; Kooi, Jacob
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
fDate :
6/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
We have successfully fabricated niobium diffusion-cooled hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixers on membranes of silicon nitride less than one micron thick. This advance has allowed us to construct a 1 × 5 HEB receiver array intended for operation at 1.45 THz. This article provides an overview of the integration of the HEB array chip with silicon micromachined backshorts and feedhorns, discusses materials issues surrounding the device fabrication, reports resistance and I-V measurements, and compares HEBs fabricated on silicon nitride to similar devices on quartz substrates.
Keywords :
bolometers; hot carriers; membranes; micromachining; niobium; silicon compounds; submillimetre wave mixers; submillimetre wave receivers; superconducting mixers; 1.45 THz; HEB array chip; Nb; diffusion cooling; focused-ion beam; hot-electron bolometer mixers; micromachining; niobium; quartz substrates; receiver array; silicon nitride membranes; Biomembranes; Bolometers; Circuits; Etching; Fabrication; Focusing; Gold; Niobium; Probes; Silicon; Focused-ion beam; HEB; membrane; mixer;
Journal_Title :
Applied Superconductivity, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TASC.2005.850124
