Electromagnetic performance comparisons of 0.85 THz integrated bias-tee SIS mixers with twin-junction and end-loaded tuning schemes

Conference item

We compare the design of two 0.85 THz SIS mixers fed with a radial probe antenna aligned to the E-Plane of the input full-height rectangular waveguide connected to a drilled smooth-walled horn. Both designs employ the same 0.5 µm2 hybrid Nb/AlN/NbN tunnel junction technology, sandwiched between a NbTiN ground and aluminium wiring layer fabricated on top of a 40 µm quartz substrate. The two designs is differed by how we tune out the unwanted junction capacitance for broadband performance. The first design uses the commonly-used twin-junction tuning scheme; whilst the second design utilises an end-loaded scheme. We successfully achieve close to 2× the double sideband quantum noise performance for both schemes, but the twin-junction design is less sensitive to fabrication accuracy of planar circuit components utilised. However, the end-loaded design offers a much better IF bandwidth performance, almost twice wider than the twin-junction design. The need for an ultra-wide IF bandwidth mixer is becoming more pressing and important for the future and up-coming upgrades of various millimetre (mm) and sub-mm astronomical instruments, hence we conclude that the end-loaded design is a better solution for the THz heterodyne mixing applications.

Authors: Tan, BK; Rudakov, K; Koshelets, VP; Khudchenko, A; Baryshev, AM

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers
• Host title: Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2022
• Volume: XI
• Article number: 1219020
• Publication date: 2022-08-31
• Acceptance date: 2022-06-15
• Event title: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2022
• Event location: Montreal, Canada
• Event website: https://spie.org/conferences-and-exhibitions/astronomical-telescopes-and-instrumentation?gclid=CjwKCAjwqauVBhBGEiwAXOepkbG-336rkSpbAhgDCo-RW2KJ-paPRT1nswbTHnGzJMrH74lm1dhyUhoCGccQAvD_BwE
• Event start date: 2022-07-17
• Event end date: 2022-07-22
• DOI: 10.1117/12.2628733
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR; heterodyne technique; millimetre/sub-millimetre astronomy; Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixer; terahertz technology; electromagnetism