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IEEE Microwave and Guided Wave Letters
Volume 9 Number 11, November 1999

Table of Contents for this issue

Complete paper in PDF format

A 530-GHz Balanced Mixer

Goutam Chattopadhyay, Student Member, IEEE, Frank Rice, David Miller, Henry G. LeDuc, and Jonas Zmuidzinas, Member, IEEE

Page 467.

Abstract:

We report on the design and performance of a 530-GHz balanced SIS mixer, the first balanced mixer in this frequency range. This quasi-optical balanced mixer utilizes a cross-slot antenna on a hyperhemispherical substrate lens with eight superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions and a 180° lumped element IF hybrid circuit. The local oscillator (LO) and the radio frequency (RF) signal, orthogonal in polarization to each other, are coupled to the mixer using a wire-grid polarizer. The noise performance of the mixer is excellent, giving an uncorrected receiver noise temperature of 105 K (DSB) at 528 GHz.

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