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Published September 2004 | public
Journal Article Open

Fabrication of wide-IF 200–300 GHz superconductor–insulator–superconductor mixers with suspended metal beam leads formed on silicon-on-insulator

Abstract

We report on a fabrication process that uses SOI substrates and micromachining techniques to form wide-IF SIS mixer devices that have suspended metal beam leads for rf grounding. The mixers are formed on thin 25 µm membranes of Si, and are designed to operate in the 200–300 GHz band. Potential applications are in tropospheric chemistry, where increased sensitivity detectors and wide-IF bandwidth receivers are desired. They will also be useful in astrophysics to monitor absorption lines for CO at 230 GHz to study distant, highly redshifted galaxies by reducing scan times. Aside from a description of the fabrication process, electrical measurements of these Nb/Al–AlNx/Nb trilayer devices will also be presented. Since device quality is sensitive to thermal excursions, the new beam lead process appears to be compatible with conventional SIS device fabrication technology.

Additional Information

©2004 American Vacuum Society (Received 16 April 2004; accepted 2 August 2004; published 7 October 2004) The authors would like to thank Chris Ramsey for the DRIE work in the JPL Micro-Devices Laboratory. This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and funded through the internal Research and Technology Development (R&TD) program. The Caltech work was sponsored under NASA Grant No. NAG5-9493.

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August 22, 2023
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