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Author (up) Ryabchun, Sergey; Tong, Cheuk-Yu Edward; Blundell, Raymond; Gol'tsman, Gregory
Title Stabilization scheme for hot-electron bolometer receivers using microwave radiation Type Journal Article
Year 2009 Publication IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. Abbreviated Journal IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.
Volume 19 Issue 1 Pages 14-19
Keywords HEB, mixer, Allan variance, stabilization, radiometer equation
Abstract We present the results of a stabilization scheme for terahertz receivers based on NbN hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixers that uses microwave radiation with a frequency much lower than the gap frequency of NbN to compensate for mixer current fluctuations. A feedback control loop, which actively controls the power level of the injected microwave radiation, has successfully been implemented to stabilize the operating point of the HEB mixer. This allows us to increase the receiver Allan time to 10 s and also improve the temperature resolution of the receiver by about 30% in the total power mode of operation.
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ISSN 1051-8223 ISBN Medium
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Call Number RPLAB @ lobanovyury @ Serial 559
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Author (up) Ryabchun, Sergey; Tong, Cheuk-yu Edward; Blundell, Raymond; Kimberk, Robert; Gol’tsman, Gregory
Title Stabilisation of a terahertz hot-electron bolometer mixer with microwave feedback control Type Conference Article
Year 2007 Publication Proc. 18th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. Abbreviated Journal Proc. 18th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.
Volume Issue Pages 193-198
Keywords waveguide NbN HEB mixers, Allan variance, stability
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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Call Number Serial 1421
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Author (up) Ryabchun, Sergey; Tong, Cheuk-Yu Edward; Paine, Scott; Lobanov, Yury; Blundell, Raymond; Goltsman, Gregory
Title Temperature resolution of an HEB receiver at 810 GHz Type Journal Article
Year 2009 Publication IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. Abbreviated Journal IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.
Volume 19 Issue 3 Pages 293-296
Keywords HEB mixer
Abstract We present the results of direct measurements of the temperature resolution of an HEB receiver operating at 810 GHz, in both continuum and spectroscopic modes. In the continuum mode, the input of the receiver was switched between black bodies with different physical temperatures. With a system noise temperature of around 1100 K, the receiver was able to resolve loads which differed in temperature by about 1 K over an integration time of 5 seconds. This resolution is significantly worse than the value of 0.07 K given by the radiometer equation. In the spectroscopic mode, a gas cell filled with carbonyl sulphide (OCS) gas was used and the emission line at 813.3537060 GHz was measured using the receiver in conjunction with a digital spectrometer. From the observed spectra, we determined that the measurement uncertainty of the equivalent emission temperature was 2.8 K for an integration time of 0.25 seconds and a spectral resolution of 12 MHz, compared to a 1.4 K temperature resolution given by the radiometer equation. This relative improvement is due to the fact that at short integration times the contribution from 1/f noise and drift are less dominant. In both modes, the temperature resolution was improved by about 40% with the use of a feedback loop which adjusted the level of an injected microwave radiation to maintain a constant operating current of the HEB mixer. This stabilization scheme has proved to be very effective to keep the temperature resolution of the HEB receiver to close to the theoretical value given by the radiometer equation.
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 636
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