PT Journal AU Maezawa, H TI Application of superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixers for terahertz-band astronomy SO IEICE Trans. Electronics PY 2015 BP 196 EP 206 VL 98 IS 3 DE HEB mixer applications; HEB applications AB Recently, a next-generation heterodyne mixer detector - a hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer employing a superconducting microbridge - has gradually opened up terahertz-band astronomy. The surrounding state-of-the-art technologies including fabrication processes, 4 K cryostats, cryogenic low-noise amplifiers, local oscillator sources, micromachining techniques, and spectrometers, as well as the HEB mixers, have played a valuable role in the development of super-low-noise heterodyne spectroscopy systems for the terahertz band. The current developmental status of terahertz-band HEB mixer receivers and their applications for spectroscopy and astronomy with ground-based, airborne, and satellite telescopes are presented. ER