Superconducting Switchable Circulator

High Temperature Superconductive (HTS) components have advanced to the point where they start to offer substantial benefits for future communication systems and phased array antenna technology. We propose here to build on our recently successful demonstration of a superconducting circulator and extend this technology to miniature low-loss switching components. Such circulator based switches have unique advantages with respect to insertion loss and power handling capability compared to conventional integrated solid state circuit switches. By eventually integrating such miniature switching circulators, especially when realized in lumped element form, with other superconducting components major system advantages in satellite communications circuitry can be realized. For Phase I of this SBIR we propose to demonstrate the basic feasibility of a superconducting low-loss switchable circulator with good power handling capability. Beside its use in switching of filter banks and time delay shifting networks, it could also be an important component in various highly selective receivers (ELINT, COMINT, etc.). The initial feasibility demonstration of the HTS circulator switch is proposed to be performed at X-band, which permits straight-forward scaling to both higher and lower frequency bands of major interest for NASA.