A 36 GHz HTS MMIC Josephson mixer - simulation and measurement

Zhang, Ting and Gao, Xiang and Wang, Wei and Du, Jia and Pegrum, Colin and Guo, Yingjie Jay (2017) A 36 GHz HTS MMIC Josephson mixer - simulation and measurement. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 27 (4). 1502405. ISSN 1051-8223 (https://doi.org/10.1109/TASC.2016.2647239)

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Abstract

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.