THE NRL JOSEPHSON-JUNCTION MONITORING EXPERIMENT ON HTSEE-II

An experiment designed to ride on the high temperature superconductor space experiment (HTSSE-II) satellite package is described, which moni tors the current-voltage characteristics of two high temperature super conductor (BTS) Josephson junctions, The junctions are typical example s of the state-of-the-art at the time of incorporation, and were obtai ned from two industrial laboratories: TRW and Conductus. Stringent req uirements on shielding the devices from rf interference and de magneti c fields are necessary to ensure that the measurements are meaningful, An additional constraint is imposed by the necessity to minimize flow of heat into the device package, Engineering solutions to these probl ems, and the resulting performance of the measurement system, are desc ribed. The package and associated electronics have been integrated int o the flight satellite.