Development of 1.25 THz SIS mixer for Herschel Space Observatory

A. Karpov; D. Miller; F. Rice; J. A. Stern; B. Bumble; H. G. LeDuc; J. Zmuidzinas

doi:10.1117/12.684534

6 July 2006 Development of 1.25 THz SIS mixer for Herschel Space Observatory

A. Karpov, D. Miller, F. Rice, J. A. Stern, B. Bumble, H. G. LeDuc, J. Zmuidzinas

Proceedings Volume 6275, Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy III; 62751U (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.684534
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2006, Orlando, Florida , United States

Abstract

We summarize the development and the delivery of two SIS mixers for the 1.1-1.25 THz band of the heterodyne spectrometer of Herschel Observatory (HSO). The quasi-optical SIS mixer has two Nb/AlN/NbTiN junctions with the area of 0.25 um². The Josephson critical current density in the junction is 30-50 kA/cm². The tuning circuit integrated with SIS junction has the base electrode of Nb and a gold wire layer. With the new SIS mixers the test receiver maximum Y factor is 1.41. The minimum receiver uncorrected DSB noise temperature is 450 K. The SIS receiver noise corrected for the loss in the optics is 350-450 K across the 1100-1250 GHz band. The receiver has a uniform sensitivity in the full IF range of 4-8 GHz. The sub-micron sized SIS junction shape is optimized to ease the suppression of the Josephson current, and the receiver operation is stable. The measured mixer beam pattern is symmetrical and, in a good agreement with the requirements, has the f/d =4.25 at the central frequency of the operation band. The minimum DSB SIS receiver noise is close to 6 hv/k, the lowest value achieved thus far in the THz frequencies range.

Citation Download Citation

A. Karpov, D. Miller, F. Rice, J. A. Stern, B. Bumble, H. G. LeDuc, and J. Zmuidzinas "Development of 1.25 THz SIS mixer for Herschel Space Observatory", Proc. SPIE 6275, Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy III, 62751U (6 July 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.684534

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