TY  - CONF
AU  - Baubert, J.
AU  - Salez, M.
AU  - Delorme, Y.
AU  - Pons, P.
AU  - Goltsman, G.
AU  - Merkel, H.
AU  - Leconte, B.
A2  - Smart Sensors, Actuators, and MEMS
ED  - Chiao, J-C
ED  - Varadan, V. K.
ED  - Cané, C.
PY  - 2003
DA  - 2003//
TI  - Membrane-based HEB mixer for THz applications
T2  - Proc. SPIE
BT  - Proc. SPIE
SP  - 551
EP  - 562
VL  - 5116
PB  - SPIE
KW  - membrane NbN HEB mixers
KW  - heterodyne receiver
KW  - stress-less membrane
KW  - coupling efficiency
KW  - submillimeter-waves frequency
KW  - low-cost space applications
AB  - We report in this paper a new concept for 2.7 THz superconducting Niobium nitride (NbN) Hot-Electron Bolometer mixer (HEB). The membrane process was developped for space telecommnunication applications a few years ago and the HEB mixer concept is now considered as the best choice for low-noise submillimeter-wave frequency heterodyne receivers. The idea is then to join these two technologies. The novel fabrication scheme is to fabricate a NbN HEB mixer on a 1 μm thick stress-less Si[sub:3]N[sub:4]/SiO[sub:2] membrane. This seems to present numerous improvements concerning : use at higher RF frequencies, power coupling efficiency, HEB mixer sensitivity, noise temperature, and space applications. This work is to be continued within the framework of an ESA TRP project, a 2.7 THz heterodyne camera with numerous applications including a SOFIA airborne receiver. This paper presents the whole fabrication process, the validation tests and preliminary results. Membrane-based HEB mixer theory is currently being investigated and further tests such as heterodyne and Fourier transform spectrometry measurement are planed shortly.
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.499158
DO  - 10.1117/12.499158
N1  - exported from refbase (https://db.rplab.ru/refbase/show.php?record=1520), last updated on Thu, 20 May 2021 19:56:46 -0500
ID  - Baubert_etal2003
ER  -