Measurement of the noise contributions to SIS heterodyne receivers

Author

Woody, D.P.

Author_Institution

Owens Valley Radio Obs., California Inst. of Technol., Big Pine, CA, USA

Volume

5

Issue

2

fYear

1995

fDate

6/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

3312

Lastpage

3315

Abstract

The development of quantum limited heterodyne receivers requires that you understand and are able to measure the major sources of noise in the receiver system. The major sources of noise in millimeter- and submillimeter-wave SIS heterodyne receivers are the optical front end losses, vacuum fluctuation noise associated with the RF coupling efficiency to the SIS tunnel junction and IF amplifier noise. Although there are several methods for estimating the optical losses and IF amplifier noise, the RF coupling efficiency or quantum efficiency has been much more difficult to ascertain. This paper describes in situ techniques for measuring all three noise contributions in a standard receiver used for astronomical observations. Results are presented for the receivers operating in the Owens Valley Millimeter Interferometer Array.<>

Keywords

demodulation; millimetre wave receivers; optical losses; submillimetre wave receivers; superconducting device noise; superconducting microwave devices; superconductor-insulator-superconductor devices; IF amplifier noise; Owens Valley Millimeter Interferometer Array; RF coupling efficiency; SIS tunnel junction; astronomical observations; millimeter-wave receivers; noise; optical front end losses; quantum efficiency; quantum limited heterodyne receivers; submillimeter-wave receivers; vacuum fluctuation noise; Extraterrestrial measurements; Noise measurement; Optical coupling; Optical interferometry; Optical losses; Optical mixing; Optical noise; Optical receivers; Radio frequency; Stimulated emission;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Applied Superconductivity, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1051-8223

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/77.403300

Filename

403300