Abstract
Dramatic advances in millimeter and submillimeter wave receivers in recent years have resulted from the development of superconductor insulator superconductor (SIS) mixers, which now offer unsurpassed performance from 70 GHz to 1 THz. To increase the sensitivity of the receivers further at these frequencies, one needs to use dual-polarized and balanced receivers. When both the polarizations are received simultaneously, there is a square root of two improvement in the signal to noise ratio (SNR). Balanced mixers improve the sensitivity of receivers by suppressing local oscillator (LO) amplitude modulation (AM) noise and rejecting LO thermal noise. This thesis describes the design, fabrication and performance of mixers and components for low noise dual-polarized and balanced receivers at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths both in quasi-optical and waveguide configurations. The quasi-optical receiver utilizes a novel cross-slot antenna on a silicon hyperhemispherical lens, two junction tuning circuits, niobium trilayer junctions, and an IF circuit containing a lumped element 180 degree hybrid. The antenna has four feed points, two for each polarization; and each feed point is coupled to a two-junction SIS mixer. For dual polarization operation, the mixer is mounted in such a way that a single LO can pump the junctions for both the polarizations. For the balanced receiver, the LO and the RF signals are coupled to the mixer in orthogonal polarizations using a wire-grid polarizer. For waveguide dual polarization receivers, a moderately broadband septum ortho-mode transducer (OMT) is designed and experimental results are presented at millimeter wavelengths. Broadband finline OMTs are investigated for possible use at millimeter wavelengths, and experimental results of a finline OMT is presented at X-band.
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