350-GHz Bandpass Filters Using Superconducting Coplanar Waveguide

On-chip filters play an invaluable role in most detectors and instruments, blocking unwanted, harmonic, or mirrored signals. In this article, two coplanar waveguide bandpass filters working at 350 GHz are designed based on quarter-wavelength stepped impedance resonators, which can be easily integrated in on-chip systems. A second-order filter with a classical Chebyshev response and a fourth-order filter with quasi-elliptical characteristic is developed together to define the roll-off performance. Both filters are patterned based on superconducting niobium film by the optical lithography and lift-off process, which could reduce the significant metallic loss in high terahertz band. All the chips integrated with transitions are evaluated through a quasi-optical system, which is built based on the sensitive superconductor-insulator-superconductor tunnel junction detector at cryogenic temperature. The calibrated transmission responses, which are matched with simulations, have indicated that such superconducting coplanar waveguide filters can be enabled in future terahertz astronomical spectrometer.