Low Noise Receivers at 1.6 THz and 2.5 THz Based on Niobium Nitride Hot Electron Bolometer Mixers

Author

Chen, J. ; Liang, M. ; Kang, L. ; Jin, B.B. ; Xu, W.W. ; Wu, P.H. ; Zhang, W. ; Jiang, L. ; Li, N. ; Shi, S.C.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Sci. & Eng., Nanjing Univ., Nanjing, China

Volume

19

Issue

3

fYear

2009

fDate

6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

278

Lastpage

281

Abstract

Low noise receivers based on superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers have been designed, fabricated and measured in the terahertz (THz) frequency range for applications in astronomy and cosmology. The NbN HEB mixer consists of a planar antenna and an NbN bridge connecting across the antenna´s inner terminals on high-resistivity Si substrates. Double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperatures of 920 K at 1.6 THz and 1630 K at 2.5 THz have been obtained at 4.2 K without corrections. Effects of Parylene C AR coating on the lens have been studied; with such a coating a lowest DSB receiver noise temperature of 1135 K at 2.5 THz has been obtained at 4.2 K.

Keywords

bolometers; hot carriers; niobium compounds; submillimetre wave mixers; submillimetre wave receivers; superconducting mixers; Double sideband receiver noise temperature; NbN; astronomy; cosmology; frequency 1.6 THz; frequency 2.5 THz; hot electron bolometer mixer; low noise receiver; planar antenna; superconducting hot electron bolometer mixer; temperature 1135 K; temperature 1630 K; temperature 4.2 K; temperature 920 K; Hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer; quasi-optical superconducting heterodyne detector; receiver noise temperature; terahertz (THz);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Applied Superconductivity, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1051-8223

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TASC.2009.2017910

Filename

4982581