March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden Integrated Submillimeter and Terahertz Receivers with Superconducting Local Oscillator V.P. Koshelets, S.V. Shitov, P.N. Dmitriev, A.B. Ermakov, L.V.Filippenko, O.V. Koryukin, A.S. Sobolev, M.Yu. Torgashin Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (IREE), Moscow, Russia T. de Graauw, W. Luinge, R. Hoogeveen, P. Yagoubov National Institute for Space Research (SRON), the Netherlands

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden2 Integrated Submillimeter and Terahertz Receivers with Superconducting Local Oscillator Outline · Superconducting Integrated Receiver (SIR) – Introduction · SIR - State of Art · FFO Phase Locking; Phase Noise · SIR with Phase Locked FFO – First Implementation · TErahertz LImb Sounder (TELIS) · Optimization of the FFO for TELIS · 1 THz SIR - Prospects and Limitations · Conclusion

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden3 Block Diagram of Superconducting Integrated Receiver

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden4 Integrated Submm Wave Receiver Single chip SIS receivers with superconducting FFO has been studied at frequencies from 100 to 700 GHz A DSB receiver noise temperature as low as 90 K has been achieved at 500 GHz 9-pixel Imaging Array Receiver has been successfully tested Phase Locking (PLL) up to 700 GHz POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS Airborne Receiver for Atmospheric Research and Environmental Monitoring; Radio Astronomy Large Imaging Array Receiver Laboratory General Purpose MM & subMM Wave Receiver

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden5 Integrated Receiver Microcircuits Antenna tuner SIS junction 1 μm x1 μm SIS junction 1 μm x1 μm Antenna - 1 Antenna - 2 LO injector (1 μm wide /4 microstrip line) LO injector (1 μm wide /4 microstrip line) Antenna tuner LO feeder (4 μm wide microstrip line) LO feeder (4 μm wide microstrip line) DC bias/IF output & control line for Josephson noise suppression 20  m

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden6 Replaceable Module of the 500 GHz Imaging Array Superconducting Integrated Receiver

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden7 Nine- pixel Imaging Array Receiver Block.

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden8 Antenna Beam Pattern of the SIR

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden9 SIR Noise Temperature

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden10 Flux Flow Oscillator

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden11 FFO + SIS; Frequency Control FFO frequency 265 GHz 437 GHz 570 GHz 670 GHz

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden12 FFO + SIS; Power Control

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden13 Circuit for FFO Linewidth Study & PL

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden14 Example of FFO Spectrum

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden15 Spectra of the FFO at GHz

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden16 Down-converted spectrum of the FFO phase locked at GHz

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden17 Phase Noise of the PL FFO

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden18 Microcircuit of the superconducting integrated receiver with phase-locked Josephson oscillator. The chip size is 4 mm by 4 mm

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden19 Spectral Resolution of the SIR With Phase-locked FFO

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden20 Spectral line of SO 2 at GHz detected by SIR with phased-locked FFO and processed by AOS

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden21 TELIS Acronym: TErahertz LImb Sounder Balloon instrument on board the MIPAS gondola, IMK Karlsruhe Three independent frequency channels, cryogenic heterodyne receivers: – 500 GHz by RAL – GHz by SRON-IREE – 1.8 THz by DLR (PI)

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden22 TELIS Objectives Measure many species (together with MIPAS-B), for atmospheric science Serve as a test platform for new sensors Serve as validation tool for future satellite missions

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden23 Example of the Atmospheric Spectrum

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden24 TELIS-SIR Main Parameters ##DescriptionBase lineGoal 1Input frequency range, GHz Minimum noise temperature in the range (DSB), K Output IF range, GHz Spectral resolution (width of the spectral channel), MHz11 5Contribution to the nearest spectral channel by phased locked FFO (dynamic range of the spectrometer), dB -20 6Contribution to a spectral channel by phased locked FFO at 4-6 GHz offset from the carrier, K 20 7LO frequency net (distance between nearest settings of the PL FFO frequency), MHz < 300 8Dissipated power at 4.2 K stage (including IF amplifiers chain), mW Operation temperature, K< 4.5

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden25 Spectral Ratio of the PL FFO vs free running FFO linewidth

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden26 FFO Linewidth: Dependence on Frequency and Current Density

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden27 Flux Flow Oscillator R d B =  V/  I B R d CL =  V FFO /  I CL

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden28 R d CL as a function of R d

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden29 Normalized FFO Linewidth

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden30 Normalized FFO Linewidth

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden31 FFO Linewidth on (R d + R d CL )

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden32 FFO Linewidth (Design issue)

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden33 Free-running FFO linewidth and spectral ratio of the PL FFO as a function of the FFO frequency

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden34 1 THz Nb-AlOx-Nb SIS-mixer with Double-dipole Antenna and NbTiN/SiO 2 /Al Tuning Microstrip

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden35 Double-dipole SIS Mixer with NbTiN/Al Tuner

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden36 Nb-AlN-Nb Junctions for THz SIR: Jc = 8 and 19 kA/cm 2

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden37 Nb-AlN-Nb Junctions for THz SIR: Jc = 70 and 210 kA/cm 2

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden38 Submicron Nb-AlN-Nb junction: S = 0.03  2 ; Jc = 21 kA/cm 2 ; Rj/Rn = 14 EBL + CMP

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden39 Nb-AlN-NbN Junctions

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden40 IVCs of the Nb-AlN-NbN FFO, measured at different H

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden41 Spectra of the Nb-AlN-NbN FFO at 597 GHz,  f = 3.5 MHz; SR = 70%

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden42 THz SIR – Possible Implementations FFOMixer NbN-MgO/AlN-NbN NbN-MgO/AlN-NbN V g up to 6 mV (1.5 THz) P LO   2 (1  W at 1 THz) NbN-MgO/AlN-NbN Phonon Cooled NbN HEB P LO  0.1  W (  independent) T R  700 K at 1.5 THz Stacked NbN-MgO-NbN Phonon Cooled NbN HEB frequency up to 3 THz

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden43 Conclusion Optimization of of a Nb-AlO x -Nb Flux-Flow Oscillator design along with a development of the wide-band PLL system allow us to realize a FFO phase locking to a reference oscillator in the frequency range from 250 to 715 GHz. The measured absolute FFO phase noise is as low as – 93 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset below the 450 GHz carrier. This fits the requirements for most practical applications. The first implementation of a Superconducting Integrated Receiver (SIR) with phased locked FFO has been tested with a resolution better than 10 kHz. The phased locked SIR has been tested successfully as a laboratory spectrometer. This study provides an important input for future development of a balloon-based GHz integrated receiver for the Terahertz Limb Sounder (TELIS) scheduled to fly in Receiver DSB noise temperature below 300 K has been achieved in the frequency range GHz. Phase locking of a FFO with NbN electrodes has been demonstrated. Possible implementations of a SIR for operation at frequencies above 1 THz have been proposed.

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden44 SRON-IREE and RAL Receivers

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden45 Concepts of a SIR with PL FFO

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden46 Ratio of PL and total FFO power FFO LW (MHz) Eff. PLL BW (MHz)

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden47 Optimization of the HM operation

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden48 Optimization of the HM operation: dependence on HM voltage

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden49 Optimization of the HM operation: dependence on synthesizer power

March 24, 2004Björkliden, Sweden50 Optimization of the HM operation: dependence on PLL Gain