Hybrid technology digital correlation spectrometers for astronomy and communications

Superconductor and semiconductor technologies can be combined using hybrid-temperature hybrid-technology (HT)2 techniques to produce very-high-performance mixed-signal systems, including digital receivers and spectrometers. The thoughtful placement of the superconductor/semiconductor interface maximizes the output performance by balancing the bandwidth and digital speed of superconductor circuitry with the complexity and high aggregate data rate of semiconductor gate arrays and/or computers. Superconducting front ends can be used with auto- and cross-correlator circuits to monitor noisy spectra or to compare spectral details with known templates. Autocorrelators and cross-correlators are used as example systems. In addition, once interesting spectral features are identified, we show a band-pass digitizer can be used to zoom in on narrower swaths of bandwidth to obtain higher-resolution data. Such a coarse/fine digital RF spectrometer may find applications as diverse as radio astronomy and wireless communications.