560 GHz, 664 GHz and 1.2 THz Schottky based MMIC sub-harmonic mixers for planetary atmospheric remote sensing and FMCW radar

摘要

We present here the development of several sub-milllimeter wave heterodyne receivers based on MMIC Schottky. First, a 560 GHz heterodyne receiver using MMIC Schottky devices has been developed by JPL. It features a 280 GHz tripler and 560 GHz sub-harmonic mixer integrated in a single block. It exhibits a DSB mixer noise temperature of 1400 K and DSB mixer conversion losses of 7.5 dB at 590 GHz. In addition, a 664 GHz receiver using similar MMIC Schottky devices balanced mixer architecture has been developed. It exhibits good performance with a DSB mixer noise temperature of 2500 K and DSB mixer conversion losses below 10 dB at 670 GHz. Finally, the 1200 GHz channel is under development. It includes an LO source inherited from the HIFI project for the generating enough power at 600 GHz, and a novel 1200 GHz MMIC biasable sub-harmonic mixer that is presented.