Broadband 600- and 1200-GHz Subharmonically Pumped Schottky Diode Mixers
Abstract
A subharmonic mixer topology is introduced that uses quarter-wave stubs to create virtual RF/LO grounds and provide impedance matching in close proximity to the antiparallel Schottky barrier diode pair, thereby reducing the electrical length and enabling broadband operation. The RF/LO matching topology is demonstrated at 600 GHz and 1200 GHz, with good agreement between measured and simulated performance. The 600-GHz mixer demonstrates approximately 20% RF bandwidth with a DSB receiver noise temperature below 1300 K across most of the measured band, while the 1200-GHz implementation achieves DSB receiver noise temperatures below 3000 K over a broad frequency range. Both mixers are characterized at room temperature with approximately 2 mW of LO power. The 600-GHz mixer is used in the Submillimeter Wave Instrument (SWI) onboard ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer. Overall, these results demonstrate state-of-the-art room-temperature performance for broadband receiver front ends targeting atmospheric research and remote-sensing applications.
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BibTeX
@misc{sobis2026broadband,
title = {{Broadband 600- and 1200-GHz Subharmonically Pumped Schottky Diode Mixers}},
author = {Peter Sobis and Vladimir Drakinskiy and Karl Jacob and Axel Murk and Anders Emrich and Jan Stake},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.15657},
eprint = {2610.15657},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.15657},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Broadband 600- and 1200-GHz Subharmonically Pumped Schottky Diode Mixers
AU - Peter Sobis
AU - Vladimir Drakinskiy
AU - Karl Jacob
AU - Axel Murk
AU - Anders Emrich
AU - Jan Stake
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.15657
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.15657
AB - A subharmonic mixer topology is introduced that uses quarter-wave stubs to create virtual RF/LO grounds and provide impedance matching in close proximity to the antiparallel Schottky barrier diode pair, thereby reducing the electrical length and enabling broadband operation. The RF/LO matching topology is demonstrated at 600 GHz and 1200 GHz, with good agreement between measured and simulated performance. The 600-GHz mixer demonstrates approximately 20% RF bandwidth with a DSB receiver noise temperature below 1300 K across most of the measured band, while the 1200-GHz implementation achieves DSB receiver noise temperatures below 3000 K over a broad frequency range. Both mixers are characterized at room temperature with approximately 2 mW of LO power. The 600-GHz mixer is used in the Submillimeter Wave Instrument (SWI) onboard ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer. Overall, these results demonstrate state-of-the-art room-temperature performance for broadband receiver front ends targeting atmospheric research and remote-sensing applications.
ER -