Development of superconducting front-end T/R module for active phased array antenna

We have proposed a 3 GHz band high-sensitivity superconducting front-end T/R module for an active phased array antenna. This T/R module consists of a transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit with a cryogenic part composed of a high-Tc superconducting filter and a cryogenic low-noise amplifier. Low profile could be realized by the two techniques, which are the RF interface technique using resonator coupling for heat insulating and liquid nitrogen for cooling. Measured noise temperature of the receiver circuit of the superconducting front-end module cooled at 77 K was 13.0 K. The high-sensitivity receiver characteristic was realized by both low insertion loss for the superconducting circuits and low noise for the cryogenic low-noise amplifier. Therefore, the application of the T/R module to an active phased array radar is expected to realize low amplitude deviation and good phase linearity.