Demonstration Of Squid Parametric Amplifier

Superconductive electronics incorporating Josephson junctions and SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices) offers electronic systems of unrivaled sensitivity, speed, and efficiency which are important for the Navy and other DoD agencies. Under this contract, TRW has developed microwave parametric amplifiers based upon Josephson junction SQUIDs operating at X-band and K-band with noise levels approaching the quantum limit. This development makes possible microwave and millimeter-wave heterodyne receivers with noise temperatures below 10 k beyond 100 GHz. The amplifiers demonstrated here can serve as RF preamplifiers which set the noise figure in advanced of the mixer in receiver systems. As the front-end RF amplifier, this device will have much greater electromagnetic survivability than conventional mixer diodes. The amplifier developed under this contract served as the model for an integrated receiver under development for SDIO/IST. This research has demonstrated 10 dB gain amplifier operated at X-band with measured noise temperature equal to 6 K. (RH).