Properties of Josephson array oscillators at the submillimeter wave region

We have developed resistively shunted tunnel junctions with a small parasitic inductance (/spl equiv/100 fH) to improve the high-frequency performance of Josephson array oscillators. Josephson array oscillators with 11 such junctions and Nb microstrip resonators were designed and fabricated to operate at 690 GHz. Shapiro steps induced by Josephson oscillation were clearly observed at the submillimeter frequency region. By comparing the step height with the numerical simulation, we estimated the power of the Josephson oscillator delivered to the load resistor to be about 10 /spl mu/W at 625 GHz. The linewidth of the Josephson array oscillator was also measured using an integrated receiver consisting of two Josephson array oscillators and an SIS mixer. The designed frequency of the receiver was set at 550 GHz. IF output power spectrum was observed when both the oscillators were biased at about 1.17 mV which corresponds to 566 GHz. The composite linewidth of Josephson oscillation was measured about 8 MHz at 4.2 K.