SIS Mixer Fabrication for ALMA Band10

Band10 of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is a planned heterodyne receiver covering the frequency range 790 GHz-950 GHz. The waveguide mixers are superconductor insulator superconductor (SIS) Nb/Al-AlO x /Nb junctions integrated with NbTiN/SiO 2 /Al tuning circuits. Our junction definition process has been greatly simplified by introducing an inductively-coupled-plasma (ICP) etcher to the fabrication. The etching process, which employs a low-pressure CF 4 /O 2 plasma, allows to remove the entire Nb/Al-AlO x /Nb tri-layer in a single step. SIS mixers with current densities up to 10 kA/cm 2 and quality factor above 15 have been fabricated with good reproducibility. Minimum receiver noise temperature, corrected for optical losses, is 210 K at 860 GHz. With the goal to further improve the performance, optimization of circuit design and fabrication technology are discussed.