SPACE APPLICATIONS OF SUPERCONDUCTING MICROWAVE ELECTRONICS AT NASA LEWIS RESEARCH-CENTER

Since the discovery of high temperature superconductivity in 1987, NAS A Lewis Research Center has been involved in efforts to demonstrate it s advantages for applications involving microwave electronics in space , especially space communications. The program has included thin film fabrication by means of laser ablation. Specific circuitry which has b een investigated includes microstrip ring resonators at 32 GHz, phase shifters which utilize a superconducting, optically activated switch, an 8x8 32 GHz superconducting microstrip antenna array, and an HTS-rin g-resonator stabilized oscillator at 8 GHz. The latter two components are candidates for use in space experiments which will be described in other papers. Experimental data on most of the circuits will be prese nted as well as, in some cases, a comparison of their performance with an identical circuit utilizing gold or copper metallization.