Controlling the THz heterodyne — Lesson learned from HIFI/Herschel mission

Author

Orleanski, Piotr ; Michalska, Malgorzata ; Nowosielski, Witold ; Pearson, John C. ; Ciechanowicz, Mirek ; Klein, Thomas ; Risacher, Christophe ; Helmich, Frank ; Jacobs, Herman ; Jellema, Willem ; De Jonge, Albrecht ; Roelfsema, Peter ; Shipman, Russel ;

Author_Institution

Space Res. Center, Warsaw, Poland

Volume

2

fYear

2012

fDate

21-23 May 2012

Firstpage

426

Lastpage

432

Abstract

The Local Oscillator Subsystem (LOS/S) is a part of the HIFI (Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared) project, an infrared heterodyne instrument for astronomical observations on the ESA HERSCHEL Space Observatory. Local Oscillator Subsystem uses the set of sensitive microwave components, essential for frequency multiplication from K/Ka Bands to 480/1910GHz. The paper presents the methods of biasing of the LOU independent microwave amplifiers and diodes. The special care at the design phase was given to different methods of protection against wrong biasing of such components. The results of the protection, implemented in LCU hardware and software, are discussed at the paper, based on the lessons learned from more than four years of pre-launch activities and almost three years of HIFI operations on the orbit.

Keywords

aerospace instrumentation; heterodyne detection; terahertz wave detectors; ESA HERSCHEL Space Observatory; HIFI/Herschel mission; THz heterodyne; astronomical observations; frequency multiplication; heterodyne instrument for the far infrared; local oscillator subsystem; Aerospace electronics; Instruments; Local oscillators; Power amplifiers; Radio frequency; Switches; Voltage measurement; BERSCHEL; HIFI; biasing and protection of microwave components;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Radar and Wireless Communications (MIKON), 2012 19th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Warsaw

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1435-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MIKON.2012.6233606

Filename

6233606