Development of the ALMA-North America sideband-separating SIS mixers
Abstract
As the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) nears completion, 73 dual-polarization receivers have been delivered for each of Bands 3 (84-116 GHz) and 6 (211-275 GHz). The receivers use sideband-separating superconducting Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb tunnel-junction (SIS) mixers, developed for ALMA to suppress atmospheric noise in the image band. The mixers were designed taking into account dynamic range, input return loss, and signal-to-image conversion (which can be significant in SIS mixers). Typical SSB receiver noise temperatures in Bands 3 and 6 are 30 K and 60 K, resp., and the image rejection is typically 15 dB.
- Publication:
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IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest
- Pub Date:
- June 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1109/MWSYM.2013.6697439
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1306.6085
- Bibcode:
- 2013imsd.conf97439K
- Keywords:
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- Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Submitted to IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., June 2013. 10 pages, 21 figures