Ryabchun S, Tong C-yu E, Blundell R, Kimberk R, Gol’tsman G. Stabilisation of a terahertz hot-electron bolometer mixer with microwave feedback control. In: Proc. 18th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.; 2007. p. 193–8.
Abstract: We report on implementation of microwave feedback control loop to stabilise the performance of an HEB mixer receiver. It is shown that the receiver sensitivity increases by a factor of 4 over a 16-minute scan, and the corresponding Allan time increases up to 10 seconds, as opposed to an open loop value of 1 second. Our experiments also demonstrate that the receiver sensitivity is limited by the intermediate frequency chain.
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Lobanov YV, Tong C-yu E, Hedden AS, Blundell R, Gol’tsman GN. Microwave-assisted measurement of the frequency response of terahertz HEB mixers with a Fourier transform spectrometer. In: Proc. 21th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.; 2010. p. 420–3.
Abstract: We describe a novel method of operation of the HEB direct detector for use with a Fourier Transform Spectrometer. Instead of elevating the bath temperature, we have measured the RF response of waveguide HEB mixers by applying microwave radiation to select appropriate bias conditions. In our experiment, a microwave signal is injected into the HEB mixer via its IF port. By choosing an appropriate injection level, the device can be operated close to the desired operating point. Furthermore, we have shown that both thermal biasing and microwave injection can reproduce the same spectral response of the HEB mixer. However, with the use of microwave injection, there is no need to wait for the mixer to reach thermal equilibrium, so characterisation can be done in less time. Also, the liquid helium consumption for our wet cryostat is also reduced. We have demonstrated that the signal- to-noise ratio of the FTS measurements can be improved with microwave injection.
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Shurakov A, Tong E, Blundell R, Gol'tsman G. Microwave stabilization of HEB mixer by a microchip controller. In: IEEE MTT-S international microwave symposium digest.; 2012. p. 1–3.
Abstract: The stability of a Hot Electron Bolometer (HEB) mixer can be improved by the use of microwave injection. In this article we report a refinement of this approach. We introduce a microchip controller to facilitate the implementation of the stabilization scheme, and demonstrate that the feedback loop effectively suppresses drifts in the HEB bias current, leading to an improvement in the receiver stability. The measured Allan time of the mixer's IF output power is increased to > 10 s.
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Kawamura J, Blundell R, Tong C-YE, Papa DC, Hunter TR, Gol'tsman G, et al. First light with an 800 GHz phonon-cooled HEB mixer receiver. In: Proc. 9th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. Pasadena, California, USA; 1998. p. 35–43.
Abstract: Phonon-cooled superconductive hot-electron bolometric (HEB) mixers are incorporated in a waveguide receiver designed to operate near 800 Gliz. The mixer elements are thin-film nio- bium nitride microbridges with dimensions of 4 nm thickness, 0.2 to 0.3 p.m in length and 2 jun in width. At 780 GHz the best receiver noise temperature is 840 K (DSB). The mixer IF bandwidth is 2.0 GHz, the absorbed LO power is —0.1 1.1W. A fixed-tuned version of the re- ceiver was installed at the Submillimeter Telescope Observatory on Mt. Graham, Arizona, to conduct astronomical observations. These observations represent the first time that a receiver incorporating any superconducting HEB mixer has been used to detect a spectral line of celes- tial origin.
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Trifonov A, Tong CE, Lobanov Y, Kaurova N, Blundell R, Gol’tsman G. An investigation of the DC and IF performance of silicon-membrane HEB mixer elements. In: Proc. 26th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.; 2015. 40.
Abstract: We report on our initial development towards a 2x2 multi-pixel HEB waveguide mixer for operation at 1.4 THz. We have successfully fabricated devices comprising an NbN bridge integrated with antenna test structure using a silicon membrane as the supporting substrate. DC measurements of the test chips demonstrate critical current from 0.1 – 1mA depending on the size of device, with T c of around 10 K and ΔTc ~ 0.8 K.
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