A Low Phase Noise All Cryogenic Microwave Oscillator Based on a Superconductor Resonator

Abstract

A 1 GHz full cryogenic oscillator is presented. The oscillator is based on a planar superconductor resonator featuring a loaded Q factor of 200 000 at low microwave input power (unloaded Q of 400 000) and on amplifying parts realized with SiGe bipolar transistors. The circuit is designed with an harmonic balance software and realized on alumina substrate. A nonlinear model is extracted at low temperature both for the transistor and the resonator. This double nonlinearity increases the difficulty of the oscillator design and implies a strategy to limit the power inside the resonator. The vibrations of the cryogenerator are also a serious issue to get high performance. Finally, the oscillator features a phase noise of-112 dBc/Hz at 100 Hz offset frequency and a phase noise floor of-170 dBc/Hz (100 kHz offset) at a temperature of 65 K.