Full em Design Method for HTS MMIC Josephson Mixers

© 2002-2011 IEEE. We report the full electromagnetic (EM) design and simulation method, and applied it to develop a 34-GHz high-temperature superconducting (HTS) microwave monolithic integrated circuit Josephson mixer. The mixer is modeled in EM simulation software, high-frequency simulation structural simulator, with the junction area modeled as an excitation port with frequency-dependent impedance. Impedance matching between the junction and RF/IF ports is then optimized accordingly. Module design is carried out for the optimized HTS Josephson mixer, and the cavity resonance issue is investigated and eliminated. The HTS mixer module was experimentally developed and measured to verify the simulation. The measured frequency response of the conversion gain agrees with the simulation results of combined RF and IF transmission loss

Simulation of HTS Josephson Mixers

© 2016 IEEE. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization has developed superconducting microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) mixers using step-edge Josephson junctions and on-chip filters, made from YBaCuO on MgO substrates. Integration into an MMIC results in a compact and efficiently coupled structure. These have been shown to have outstanding conversion efficiency, dynamic range, and linearity. We report here a range of simulations of this type of mixer. We have mainly used Josephson simulators and analyze the data in both the time and frequency domains. More recently, we have also used microwave simulators incorporating a novel Verilog-A Josephson junction model that we have developed. We have looked at the interactions of junction bias current, local oscillator power, and radio-frequency input power with conversion efficiency, dynamic range, and linearity. Good agreement is found overall with measurements

0.34-THz High-Temperature Superconducting Josephson-Junction Mixer with Superior Noise and Conversion Performance

© 2018 IEEE. We present, in this work, a new thin-film antenna-coupled high-temperature superconducting (HTS) Josephson-junction terahertz (THz) mixer that demonstrates superior performance at frequencies around 0.34 THz. A novel dual-meander-slot thin-film antenna is designed to significantly improve the antenna-junction impedance matching and thus more efficient coupling of the THz signal power. Theoretical and experimental investigations are carried out to evaluate the mixer performance. This mixer can be applied to the sensitive THz wireless receivers

A high-temperature superconducting monolithic microwave integrated Josephson down-converter with high conversion efficiency

A compact high-Tc superconducting monolithic microwave integrated circuit Josephson down-converter is presented. The circuit consists of a single Josephson junction mixer, a bandpass filter, a lowpass filter, and a resonator for local oscillator fabricated on a single 10 mm × 20 mm chip of YBa2Cu3O7-x film on MgO substrate. The down-converter demonstrates superior performance in terms of conversion efficiency, dynamic range, linearity, and low local oscillator power with stable operation from 20 to 77 K. A maximum conversion gain of -4.7 dB was measured at 20 K and -12.8 dB at 70 K. © 2013 Crown

Monolithic high-temperature superconducting heterodyne Josephson frequency down-converter

A monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) frequency down-converter based on a compact high-T c superconducting (HTS) device is demonstrated. The on-chip integrated HTS down-converter consists of a 7-9 GHz bandpass filter for RF input, a lowpass filter for intermediate frequency output, and a self-pumped Josephson heterodyne mixer. All the above passive and active components are fabricated on a single 10 mm × 20 mm chip of YBa 2Cu 3O 7-x film on MgO substrate. Characterization of this MMIC HTS down-converter in terms of frequency response, conversion gain, frequency-tuneability, bias dependence, dynamic range, linearity, and intrinsic noise are presented in this paper. © 2012 Crown

HTS step-edge Josephson junction terahertz harmonic mixer

© 2016 Federal Australian Crown copyright. A high-temperature superconducting (HTS) terahertz (THz) frequency down-converter or mixer based on a thin-film ring-slot antenna coupled YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO)/MgO step-edge Josephson junction is reported. The frequency down-conversion was achieved using higher order harmonics of an applied lower frequency (19-40 GHz) local oscillator signal in the Josephson junction mixing with a THz signal of over 600 GHz, producing a 1-3 GHz intermediate frequency signal. Up to 31st order of harmonic mixing was obtained and the mixer operated stably at temperatures up to 77 K. The design details of the antenna, HTS Josephson junction mixer, the matching and isolation circuits, and the DC and RF performance evaluation are described in this paper

A 36 GHz HTS MMIC Josephson mixer - Simulation and measurement

© 2002-2011 IEEE. Modeling, simulation, and measurement of a compact 36 GHz high-temperature superconducting (HTS) monolithic Josephson junction mixer are presented in this paper. A full HTS microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) simulation was carried out for the circuit combining HTS passive devices and the Josephson junction. Optimal impedance matching and bias conditions were investigated, and the circuit layout was designed accordingly. The HTS circuit has a compact dimension of 5 × 4 × 0.3 mm3, including filters, resonators, and impedance matching circuits. The HTS MMIC mixer was fabricated and packaged with an LNA to realize a receiver front end with a total dimension of 28 × 25 × 15 mm3. Measurement result showed an overall conversion gain around 35 dB, with local oscillator driving power around -45 dBm at operating temperature of 40 K

Harmonic Mixing Using a HTS Step-Edge Josephson Junction at 0.6 THz Frequency

© 2002-2011 IEEE. A high-temperature superconducting (HTS) terahertz (THz) heterodyne mixer based on a thin-film antenna-coupled YBa 2Cu3O7-x step-edge Josephson junction is presented. The frequency down-conversion from 0.6 THz to an intermediate frequency (IF) of 2 GHz was achieved using high-order harmonic mixing of a local oscillator (LO), thus removing the need to use a second THz source as the LO pumping source. The DC and RF characteristics of the harmonic mixer as well as the relationship of the IF output power versus the harmonic number were experimentally studied and compared with simulated results. Most of our measurements were made at 40 K, but we also observed stable harmonic mixing at 77 K which we believe has not been reported previously in HTS junction mixers

Quantum Hall effect and Landau level crossing of Dirac fermions in trilayer graphene

We investigate electronic transport in high mobility (\textgreater 100,000 cm$^2$/V$\cdot$s) trilayer graphene devices on hexagonal boron nitride, which enables the observation of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and an unconventional quantum Hall effect. The massless and massive characters of the TLG subbands lead to a set of Landau level crossings, whose magnetic field and filling factor coordinates enable the direct determination of the Slonczewski-Weiss-McClure (SWMcC) parameters used to describe the peculiar electronic structure of trilayer graphene. Moreover, at high magnetic fields, the degenerate crossing points split into manifolds indicating the existence of broken-symmetry quantum Hall states.Comment: Supplementary Information at http://jarilloherrero.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Supplementary_Taychatanapat.pd

Demonstration of a portable HTS MMIC microwave receiver front-end

© 2014 IEEE. We report the first demonstration of a portable HTS monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) receiver front-end module operating on a commercial mini cryocooler. The HTS circuit consists of a step-edge junction mixer and a number of HTS filters fabricated on a single MgO substrate. The HTS MMIC circuit is integrated with the mini cryocooler. The sample vacuum chamber, cold-head, compressor and cooling fans are all packed into one customer-designed portable box of approximately 350 mm × 350 mm × 250 mm in dimension. The HTS Josephson junction-based microwave circuit operated successfully in the cryocooler unshielded without observable performance degradation. The design and implementation of the compact unit and performance evaluation of a HTS MMIC frequency down-converter are presented