Systematic noise analysis of a correlation radiometer front-end

A complete systematic analysis of correlation radiometer front-ends is presented. It takes into account full noise characterisation of the individual receivers and mismatch effects between different subsystems. The results are applied to the case where the front-ends include input isolator both ideal and imperfect. Along with numerical simulations, simple formulas are given to compute the visibility in these conditions, which is here defined as system visibility. The analysis is validated using experimental results consisting of correlation measurements of four receivers placed inside an anechoic chamber. Good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental data is observed