Very low-noise differential radiometer at 30 GHz for the PLANCK LFI

Author

Aja, Beatriz ; Artal, Eduardo ; De la Fuente, Luisa ; Pascual, Juan Pablo ; Mediavilla, Angel ; Roddis, Neil ; Kettle, D. ; Winder, Frank ; Cara, L.Pi. ; De Paco, Pedro

Author_Institution

Dept. de Ingenieria de Comunicaciones, Univ. de Cantabria, Santander, Spain

Volume

53

Issue

6

fYear

2005

fDate

6/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2050

Lastpage

2062

Abstract

The PLANCK mission of the European Space Agency is devoted to produce sky maps of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The low-frequency instrument is a wide-band cryogenic microwave radiometer array operating at 30, 44, and 70 GHz. The design, test techniques, and performance of the complete differential radiometer at 30 GHz are presented. This elegant breadboard 30-GHz radiometer is composed of a front-end module (FEM) assembled at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, U.K., and a back-end module assembled at the Universidad de Cantabria, Cantabria, Spain, and Telecomunicacio´, Universitat Polite´cnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. The system noise temperature was excellent, mainly due to the very low noise performance of the FEM amplifiers, which achieved an average noise temperature of 9.4 K.

Keywords

cryogenics; microwave amplifiers; microwave detectors; radiofrequency cosmic radiation; radiometers; 30 GHz; 44 GHz; 70 GHz; Barcelona; CMB radiation; European Space Agency; FEM amplifiers; Jodrell Bank Observatory; PLANCK LFI; PLANCK mission; Spain; Telecomunicacio; Universidad de Cantabria; Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya; back-end module; cosmic microwave background; differential radiometer; front-end module; low-frequency instrument; low-noise amplifier; system noise temperature; very low noise performance; very low-noise radiometer; wide-band cryogenic microwave radiometer array; Assembly; Cryogenics; Instruments; Microwave antenna arrays; Microwave radiometry; Observatories; Space missions; Temperature; Testing; Wideband; Cosmic microwave background (CMB); PLANCK low-frequency instrument (LFI); cryogenic; low-noise amplifier (LNA); microwave radiometer;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2005.848815

Filename

1440723