Abstract
We report on heterodyne measurements at submillimeter wavelengths using a receiver with a Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixer device and a Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit (MMIC) cryogenic low noise amplifier (LNA) module integrated into the same block. The mixer characterization presented in this work demonstrates the feasibility of operating a MMIC LNA in close proximity to the SIS device without penalty in mixer performance due to heating effects. Verification of this functionality is crucial for the ongoing development of SuperCam, a 64-pixel focal plane array receiver consisting of eight, 1 × 8 integrated mixer/LNA modules. The test setup included a mixer block modified to accept a MMIC amplifier. Our tests show that the LNA can be operated over a broad range of V drain voltages from 0.40-1.40 V, corresponding to dissipative powers of 2.6-29 mW. We observe no significant effect on the measured uncorrected receiver noise temperatures in the 345 GHz band.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1365-1379 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | International Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2006 |
Keywords
- Array
- Heterodyne receiver
- Low noise amplifier
- MMIC
- SIS mixer
- Submillimeter
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Radiation
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
- Instrumentation
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering