Waveguide hot electron bolometer mixer development for upGREAT

We report on our hot electron bolometer mixer development for the focal plane array extension upGREAT of the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz frequencies (GREAT) operated on SOFIA. For (up)GREAT we have pushed the waveguide technology to 4.7 THz and present RF performance results. We describe the RF planar circuit design, the micro fabrication employing NbN microbridges on 2 μm thin Si membrane substrates and the machining technology used for the waveguides. One of the 4.7 THz mixers was used in the high frequency channel on GREAT in May 2014 and performed as expected from the laboratory characterization.