Microwave stabilization of HEB mixer by a microchip controller

The stability of a Hot Electron Bolometer (HEB) mixer can be improved by the use of microwave injection. In this article we report a refinement of this approach. We introduce a microchip controller to facilitate the implementation of the stabilization scheme, and demonstrate that the feedback loop e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shurakov, Alexander, Tong, Edward, Blundell, Raymond, Gol'tsman, Gregory
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Allan variance
Frequency measurement
HEB mixer THz receiver
Mixers
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:The stability of a Hot Electron Bolometer (HEB) mixer can be improved by the use of microwave injection. In this article we report a refinement of this approach. We introduce a microchip controller to facilitate the implementation of the stabilization scheme, and demonstrate that the feedback loop effectively suppresses drifts in the HEB bias current, leading to an improvement in the receiver stability. The measured Allan time of the mixer's IF output power is increased to > 10 s.
ISSN:0149-645X
2576-7216
DOI:10.1109/MWSYM.2012.6259628