Wideband MgB2 Hot-Electron Bolometer Mixers: IF Impedance Characterisation and Modeling

Journal article, 2016

In this paper we present a method for low signal S11 parameter vector measurements of a cryogenic device in the microwave frequency range. In particular, the intermediate frequency (IF) impedance of MgB2 Hot-electron Bolometer (HEB) mixers was investigated over a frequency range of 100 MHz to 10 GHz. A new cryogenic calibration technique, which employs the HEB as a calibration kitandrequires two consecutive thermal cycles, was developed for this purpose.The real part of measured IF impedance showed a strong correlationwith the differential resistance (dV/dI) obtained from the dc I-V curves while the imaginary partwas capacitive for almost the entire frequency range.