Millimetre and submillimetre wave heterodyne receivers for atmospheric sounding and radioastronomy

Author

Beaudin, G. ; Deschamps, A. ; Encrenaz, P. ; Feautrier, P. ; Febvre, P. ; Gheudin, M. ; Perrin, O. ; Pernot, J.C. ; Prigent, C. ; Robert, C. ; Ruffié, G.

Author_Institution

Obs. de Paris-Meudon, France

fYear

1992

fDate

33879

Firstpage

42491

Lastpage

42495

Abstract

To prepare the space programs on meteorology and astrophysics, the development of two heterodyne instruments has been supported by the French Space Agency (CNES): a ten channels millimetre wave radiometer for atmospheric sounding; and a balloon-borne observatory (PRONAOS) including a 2 metre telescope associated with a submillimetre heterodyne spectrometer for radioastronomy. This receiver includes a SIS mixer using Nb/AlO_x/Nb tunnel junctions operating at 4 K, a 6 GHz IF low-noise cooled preamplifier, a LO quasi-optically injected with a phase locked Gunn oscillator and two cascaded frequency multipliers. Noise temperature as low as 300 K has been obtained; less than 200 K is expected

Keywords

atmospheric measuring apparatus; radio receivers; radioastronomy; radiometers; IF low-noise cooled preamplifier; LO; Nb-AlO_x-Nb tunnel junctions; PRONAOS; SIS mixer; atmospheric sounding; balloon-borne observatory; frequency multipliers; millimetre wave radiometer; noise temperature; phase locked Gunn oscillator; radioastronomy; submillimetre heterodyne spectrometer; submillimetre wave heterodyne receivers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

iet

Conference_Titel

Millimetre and Sub-Millimetre Wave Heterodyne Receivers, IEE Colloquium on

Conference_Location

London

Type

conf

Filename

193599