Title :
A planar quasi-optical SIS receiver
Author :
Stimson, A. ; Dengler, Robert J. ; LeDuc, Henry G. ; Cypher, Scott R. ; Siegel, Peter H.
Author_Institution :
Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA
fDate :
4/1/1993 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
A planar, quasi-optical SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) receiver operating at 230 GHz is described. The receiver consists of a 2×5 array of half-wave dipole antennas with niobium-aluminum oxide-niobium SIS junctions on a quartz dielectric-filled parabola. The 1.4-GHz intermediate frequency is coupled from the mixer via coplanar strip transmission lines and 4:1 balun transformers. The receiver is operated at 4.2 K in a liquid helium immersion cryostat. Accurate measurements of the performance of single untuned array receiver elements are reported. A mixer noise temperature of 89 K DSB (double sideband), receiver noise temperature of 156 K DSB and conversion loss of 8 dB into a matched load have been obtained. This mixer noise temperature is approximately a factor of two larger than that of current state of the art waveguide mixers using untuned single junctions a the same frequency
Keywords :
dipole antennas; microwave antenna arrays; microwave integrated circuits; mixers (circuits); superconducting junction devices; superconducting microwave devices; 1.4 GHz; 230 GHz; 4.2 K; 8 dB; Nb-Al2O3-Nb; SIS junctions; array; balun transformers; conversion loss; coplanar strip transmission lines; half-wave dipole antennas; liquid helium immersion cryostat; mixer; noise temperature; planar quasioptical receiver; quartz dielectric-filled parabola; quasi-optical SIS receiver; superconductor-insulator-superconductor; Antenna arrays; Dipole antennas; Frequency; Josephson junctions; Mixers; Superconducting device noise; Superconducting devices; Superconducting transmission lines; Temperature; Waveguide junctions;
Journal_Title :
Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on
