A 90 GHz SINIS detector with 2 GHz readout

Journal article, 2021

A superconductor-insulator-normal metal-insulator-superconductor (SINIS) detector integrated in a planar 90 GHz band twin-slot antenna with a 2 GHz superconducting resonator readout was fabricated and experimentally studied. In order to achieve high pixel count, the traditional dc readout of the SINIS detector is replaced by NbN coplanar 13.850 mm long superconducting resonator. SINIS detectors have traditionally dc Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) room-temperature readout. Such readout requires individual wiring for each pixel, while the microwave readout is far less cluttered as only one coaxial line is needed for hundreds of devices. Such readout operates similar to frequency domain multiplexing (FDM) for microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKID). The planar twin slot antenna has two parallel slots in a metal ground plane which are excited coherently by short sections of a coplanar waveguide (CPW) line with a SINIS detector at the center. One section of the CPW is extended past the slot in a long superconducting section which functions as a quarter wavelength resonator. This resonator is short circuited to the ground plane at the far end, with the expected open circuited end terminated by the SINIS detector in the antenna. We measured the response of sample to black body radiation temperatures 6 K and 9 K. The corresponding dynamic resistance maximum drops from 50 k down to 30 k. An RF readout channel comprising a coplanar coupler and a coplanar resonator has a resonant frequency of 1.8 GHz. Unloaded Q factor (without incoming irradiation) is 200. The signal spectral characteristics and the response to the black body radiation have shown design values as expected.