First implementation of a superconducting integrated receiver at 450 GHz

Abstract

An integrated quasioptical receiver consisting of a planar double dipole antenna, superconductor-insulator-superconductor mixer and a superconducting local oscillator (LO) with matching circuits has been designed, fabricated and tested in the frequency range 360–490 GHz. A flux-flow oscillator (FFO) based on unidirectional and viscous flow of magnetic vortexes in a long Josephson tunnel junction, is employed as a local oscillator. All components of the receiver are integrated on a 4 mm×4 mm×0.2 mm crystalline quartz substrate using a single Nb–AlOx–Nb trilayer. The lowest DSB noise temperature of 470–560 K has been achieved within a frequency range of 425–455 GHz.

Towards a phase-locked superconducting integrated receiver: prospects and limitations

“…This concept is based on an already proven design of the integrated receiver chip [1,2]. A submm-wave signal from an external harmonic multiplier driven by a 10 -20 GHz synthesizer is applied to the integrated receiver via …”

“…Superconducting Integrated Receiver (SIR) [1,2] is a single-chip device, which comprises a SIS-mixer with a quasioptical antenna and a superconducting local oscillator.…”

Linear and nonlinear excitations in two stacks of parallel arrays of long Josephson junctions

“…͑14͔͒ choosing a physical length of the junctions shorter than Lϭ600 m used in the present work. Moreover, using for a single junction in the structure the same parameters as those of the Josephson submillimeter wave tunable local oscillator, 25 a power enhancement proportional to the square of the number of junction in the two stack ͓i.e., (2p) 2 ] could be obtained for such oscillators if our structure were operated in the E ϩ state.…”

Linewidth of submillimeter wave flux-flow oscillators

“…This can be utilized to improve the performance of the submillimeter integrated receiver. 4,7 In the future, more advanced integrated receiver designs with two SIS mixers independently pumped by the same FFO, one SIS mixer may be used to stabilize the LO while the other serves as the low noise detector. With the proper choice of frequency bands and appropriate filtering the same IF cable may be used for both SIS mixers.…”

“…[2][3][4][5][6] A complete allsuperconducting quasioptical receiver for operational frequencies in the range 360-530 GHz has been realized. 7 Integrated on a single chip it includes a planar double dipole antenna, a superconductor-insulator-superconductor ͑SIS͒ mixer, and as LO a superconducting FFO with matching circuits. The receiver noise temperature ͑DSB͒ was as low as 470 K and the wide tuning range exceeds 100 GHz.…”