  We designed, fabricated and tested short one dimensional arrays of masked
ion-irradiated YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_7$ Josephson junctions (JJ) embedded into
log-periodic spiral antennas. Our arrays consist of 4 or 8 junctions separated
either by 960~nm or 80~nm long areas of undamaged YBCO. Samples with distanced
junctions and with closely spaced junctions showed qualitatively different
behaviors. Well separated arrays demonstrated giant Shapiro steps in the
hundreds-GHz band at 66K and were tested as Josephson mixers with improved
impedance matching. All closely spaced arrays behaved as one junction with a
lower superconducting transition temperature, hence forming a single weak link
on distances up to 880~nm. Such design opens a new way to increase the
I$_{c}$R$_{N}$ product of ion-irradiated junctions and we speculate that the
phenomena and physics behind it might be similar to the so-called "giant"
Josephson coupling observed in cuprates.
