ELECTRONICALLY TUNABLE PARAMETRIC AMPLIFIER.
Abstract
A tunable (34 to 38 GHz) receiver has been developed which utilized a cooled, two-port parametric down converter as the front end. The receiver is tuned simply by varying the pump frequency of the parametric down converter. In this manner, input signals in the 35 GHz band are selectively down converted to a fixed output frequency of 12.6 GHz, thereby eliminating the need for a tracking post receiver. The parametric down converter utilizes unpackaged epitaxial gallium arsenide varactor diodes in chip form. The amplifier is cooled to 77 K by a compact Norelco closed cycle refrigerator. This amplifier can be utilized in either its one- or two-port modes of operation, thereby providing gain at the 35-GHz signal frequency or at 12.6 GHz, respectively. The noise figure of the amplifier in either mode when cooled to 77 K is approximately 4 db. The gain and instantaneous bandwidth of the parametric amplifier are 20 db and 50 MHz, respectively. The present performance of the system could be improved considerably when varactor diode chips with higher cut-off frequencies become commercially available. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0808322
Entities
People
- B. Albrecht
- D. Neuf
Organizations
- Control Data Corporation