Impact of switching on design of Ka-band SoC Dicke radiometer for space detection of solar flares

This paper presents the results of the study aimed at evaluating the impact of the switching section on the design of a millimeter-wave system-on-chip Dicke radiometer for the space-based detection of solar flares. The radiometer operates at the frequency of 36.8 GHz and is expected to be implemented in a 0.25 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology by IHP, under Space evaluations. System analysis and circuit simulations are presented and discussed. The results show that the targeted resolution of 0.7 K can be achieved with an integration time ranging from 0.034 to 0.106 s, depending on the losses of the switch. Moreover, the effectiveness of the duty cycle compensation method for the unbalanced Dicke radiometer is proven through system simulations in the case in which the noise source produces a reference temperature 5% greater than the expected value. These results support the objective targeted with the first implementation of a SoC radiometer for space-based detection of solar flares.