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Superconducting Mixers for Submillimetre Wavelengths

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Microwave Physics and Techniques

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASHT,volume 33))

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Abstract

For radio astronomy and remote sensing applications at frequencies of the order THz there is a strong need for receivers with much higher sensitivity than is available at present. Today, most receivers for frequencies near and above 1 THz have to rely on Schottky-diode mixers, with rather poor sensitivity [1,2]. Low noise SIS mixers based on superconductors have excellent performance and have replaced Schottky-diode mixers for frequencies up to about 650 GHz, corresponding to the energy gap of niobium [1,2,4,5]. Since niobium tri-layer technology is by far the most successful SIS- mixer technology and since the RF loss will be significant above the energy gap of niobium [6], it may be very difficult to realise SIS mixers with a noise temperature limited to a few times the quantum limit (Tmixer≈hf/k) above about 700 GHz.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chalmers University of Technology, S- 412, 96 Göteborg, Sweden

    E. L. Kollberg

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  1. E. L. Kollberg
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Microwave Department, Technical University of Munich, Germany

    Horst Groll

  2. Institute of Electronics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Ivan Nedkov

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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Kollberg, E.L. (1997). Superconducting Mixers for Submillimetre Wavelengths. In: Groll, H., Nedkov, I. (eds) Microwave Physics and Techniques. NATO ASI Series, vol 33. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5540-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5540-3_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6333-3

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