Investigation of the performance of an SIS mixer with Nb-AlN-NBN tunnel junctions in the 780-950 GHz frequency band
Paper in proceeding, 2018

In this paper, we present preliminary measured performance of an SIS mixer employing a Nb/AIN/NbN tunnel junction in the frequency range of 780-950 GHz range. The mixer design is an upgrade of the Carbon Heterodyne Array of the Max-Planck-Institute Plus (CHAMP+) mixer, coupled with an easy to fabricate smooth-walled horn. The noise temperature of the mixer is measured using the standard Y-factor method, but all the RF optics is enclosed in the cryostat. We use a rotating mirror in the cryostat to switch between a room temperature load and a 4 K blackbody load. With this method, we have measured a noise temperature of 330 K around 850 GHz, corrected for a mismatch between a reduced height rectangular waveguide at the input of the mixer block and a full height waveguide at the output of the horn. To remove this mismatch we now plan to redesign a new mixer chip with a full-height waveguide back-piece. The expected performance of the new mixer chip is also reported.

Author

B. K. Tan

University of Oxford

Sumedh Mahashabde

University of Oxford

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Quantum Device Physics

Andre Hector

University of Oxford

G. Yassin

University of Oxford

Andrey Khudchenko

University of Groningen

R. Hesper

University of Groningen

A. M. Baryshev

University of Groningen

Pavel Dmitriev

Kirill Rudakov

National Research University of Electronic Technology (MIET)

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

University of Groningen

V. P. Koshelets

2018 29th IEEE International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology, ISSTT 2018

139-142

29th IEEE International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology, ISSTT 2018
Pasadena, USA,

Subject Categories

Building Technologies

Signal Processing

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

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