Submillimeter wave hot electron bolometer mixers

In this paper, an overview is given of hot-electron superconducting mixers for submillimeter wave applications. The two competing types of mixers, the phonon cooled and the diffusion cooled, are described. The mixer conversion properties can be calculated if the I-V characteristic of the unpumped device is known. The influence of image frequency power dissipation is analyzed. Finally, state of the art results are presented.