Development of 1.25 THz SIS mixer for Herschel Space Observatory
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 um^2. 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.
Additional Information
© 2006 Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). We would like to thank Tom J. Phillips for useful discussions, Gary S. Parks, James M. Newell, and Margaret A. Frerking for the support of this work, Lorraine V. Valenzuela and Nancy Cowardin for the quality assurance work, and Ricardo A. Paniagua from Caltech mechanical workshop for the work on the prototype of the mixer housing and for production of the critical mechanical parts of the mixer delivered for installation at Hershel Space Telescope. This work was supported by a NASA grant.Attached Files
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 90801
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20181109-132252579
- NASA
- Created
-
2018-11-14Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Series Name
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 6275