Velocity-cooled hot-electron bolometric mixer/detector
US6661039B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 18, 2001 |
| Grant date | Dec 9, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 20, 2021 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH10F77/14
Abstract
A hot-electron bolometric mixer/detector, which uses the nonlinearities of the heated two-dimensional electron gas medium, is described. Electrons in the illustrative embodiment of the present invention are “velocity-cooled” rather than “diffusion-cooled” or “phonon-cooled” like hot-electron bolometric mixer/detectors in the prior art. The illustrative embodiment is velocity-cooled when the elastic mean-free path of the electrons is greater than the channel length, L, of the mixer/detector. In this case, the motion of the hot electrons is more accurately modeled by their speed rather than in accordance with diffusion models. This leads to a mixer/detector with a wider modulation bandwidth at a lower power than is exhibited by mixer/detectors in the prior art.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.