Cryogenic probing of mm-Wave MMIC LNAs for large focal-plane arrays in radio-astronomy

Author

Reeves, R. ; Cleary, K. ; Gawande, R. ; Kooi, J. ; Lamb, John ; Readhead, A. ; Weinreb, S. ; Gaier, Todd ; Kangaslahti, Pekka ; Russell, D. ; Samoska, Lorene ; Varonen, Mikko ; Lai, Richard ; Sarkozy, Stephen

Author_Institution

California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

6-7 Oct. 2014

Firstpage

580

Lastpage

583

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate non-destructive cryogenic probing of monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifiers at W-band and discuss the implications for the development of large-format focal plane arrays for radio astronomy. Using a purpose-built cryogenic probe station to measure S-parameters and noise temperature of MMIC low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), an order of magnitude increase in efficiency can be achieved when compared with measurements on individually packaged amplifiers. The amplifiers are tested non-destructively, which enables selection based on cryogenic noise and gain; this is crucial for the development of highly-integrated miniaturized receivers for focal plane arrays, such as those used for the measurement of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization and future arrays aimed at probing the epoch of reionization (EoR).

Keywords

MMIC amplifiers; S-parameters; cryogenic electronics; focal planes; low noise amplifiers; probes; radioastronomy; CMB; EoR; S-parameters; W-band; built cryogenic probe station; cosmic microwave background; cryogenic gain; cryogenic noise; epoch of reionization; integrated miniaturized receivers; large focal-plane arrays; low-noise amplifiers; mm-wave MMIC LNA; monolithic microwave integrated circuit amplifiers; noise temperature; nondestructive cryogenic probing; polarization measurement; radioastronomy; Cryogenics; Extraterrestrial measurements; MMICs; Noise; Noise measurement; Semiconductor device measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

European Microwave Integrated Circuit Conference (EuMIC), 2014 9th

Conference_Location

Rome

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EuMIC.2014.6997923

Filename

6997923