We present a 380-520 GHz balanced superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer on a single silicon substrate. All radio-frequency (RF) circuit components are fabricated on a 9μm thick membrane. The intermediate frequency (IF) is separately amplified and combined. The balanced mixer chip, using Nb/Al/Al2O3/Nb SIS junctions, is mounted in a tellurium copper waveguide block at 4.2 K using Au beam lead contacts. We find uncorrected minimum receiver double-sideband noise temperatures of 70 K and a noise suppression of up to 18 dB, measured within a 440-495 GHz RF and a 4-8 GHz IF bandwidth, representing state-of-the-art device performance.
@article{arxiv.1105.1956,
title = {Balanced superconductor-insulator-superconductor mixer on a 9~$\mu$m silicon membrane},
author = {M. P. Westig and K. Jacobs and J. Stutzki and M. Schultz and M. Justen and C. E. Honingh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1105.1956},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
10 pages, 4 figures, Accepted by Superconductor Science & Technology