2019 44th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz), 2019
Sideband Ratio or so called Image Rejection Ration (IRR), is one of the key figures of merit of s... more Sideband Ratio or so called Image Rejection Ration (IRR), is one of the key figures of merit of sideband separating (2SB) receivers. Although these kind of receivers are widely used in ground-based astronomy, a full description of their IRR pattern has not been performed yet. To solve this problem we have simulated the entire 2SB SIS receiver by combining models of RF and IF chains. It was found that a bottle neck of the IRR performance is not in an imbalance of individual RF and IF components, but in system imbalances determined by parasitic reflections in RF and IF chains. Using that knowledge we have built a 2SB receiver based on SIS mixers for the APEX telescope in Chile, which has a state-of-the-art performance at frequencies 600-720 GHz.
Three tuning parameters are key to SIS performance: SIS bias voltage, LO pumping level and Joseph... more Three tuning parameters are key to SIS performance: SIS bias voltage, LO pumping level and Josephson current suppression. The former two are relatively easy to perform automatically, although there are a couple of pitfalls. The suppression of the Josephson current, however, is much more complicated, especially in the high-current-density AlN-barrier junctions used in ALMA Band 9. The tuning parameter sets that were supplied with the receivers were always biased towards safer and more repeatable regimes for operational reasons. Here we present results of the ALMA Band 9 Advanced Tuning Study commissioned by ESO. The objective of this study is to investigate more "intelligent" tuning algorithms which should enable the receivers to operate in more critical regimes that were previously avoided, but with possibly a considerable increase in performance.
We present here the performance of SIS mixers for upgrade of CHAMP+ array instrument on APEX tele... more We present here the performance of SIS mixers for upgrade of CHAMP+ array instrument on APEX telescope. In total it includes 14 mixers: 7 for the low band (600-720 GHz) and 7 for the high band (790-950 GHz). The mixers are a replacement for the existing set, which was commissioned on APEX in 2006. The low band mixers are based on Nb/AlN/Nb single tunneling SIS junction and high band ones -on Nb/AlN/NbN SIS twin junctions. The corrected DSB noise temperature of the low band mixers is roughly between 60 K and 120 K for the entire frequency range, and the corrected DSB noise temperature of the high band mixers varies from about 200 K at low frequencies to 400 K at the high end.
We presented here the design and the first results of a new sideband separating (2SB) mixer for 8... more We presented here the design and the first results of a new sideband separating (2SB) mixer for 800--950\,GHz, based on superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions. This is the first waveguide 2SB SIS mixer demonstrated at such a high frequency. The design is following the classical quadrature hybrid architecture, meanwhile additional attention was put on the reduction of reflections in the RF structure in order to minimize the RF imbalance, to achieve a high image rejection ratio (IRR). The RF waveguide block was manufactured by micro-milling and populated by single-ended SIS mixers developed earlier for upgrade of the CHAMP+ high band array on the APEX telescope. These SIS mixers have DSB noise temperatures from 210 to 400\,K. The assembled 2SB mixer yields a single-sideband noise temperature from 450 to 900\,K, with an image rejection ratio above 15dB in 95\% of the band. Comparing the DSB and SSB sensitivities, we find that the waveguide losses are as low as expected...
Th e Atacama L arge Millimeter I nterferometer (ALMA) (1) sit e is an o bservatory which consists... more Th e Atacama L arge Millimeter I nterferometer (ALMA) (1) sit e is an o bservatory which consists of more than fifty 12 meter diameter sub-mm telescopes, locat ed at an altitude of 5000 m in t he Atacama desert in Chile. It covers the 30-950 GHz frequency range which is divided into ten bands following the atmospheric transmission w indows. ALMA fro nt- ends w ill be u sing Superconductor-Insulato r-Superconductor (SIS) heterodyne mixers as the key sensitive elements for a ll of its high frequency bands. The ALMA band 9 receiver which covers 600-720 GHz is being developed in t he Neth erlands. Th e first eight rec eivers h ave already been built base d on AlOx barrier SIS junctions mixers. These mixers have excellent noise temperature but show limited RF and IF ba ndwidth. Using new AlN bar rier highe r c urrent density SIS junctions, it is possible to improve on the RF and IF bandwidth of SIS mixe rs thus makin g this te chnology significantly more attra ctive f or th e u se in l a...
During Science Verification of the new SEPIA660 facility receiver at APEX, we carried out a shall... more During Science Verification of the new SEPIA660 facility receiver at APEX, we carried out a shallow line survey of the archetypal Kleinmann- Low Nebula in the Orion star forming region (Orion-KL). These observations cover the tuning range towards the band edges, which has recently been extended beyond ALMA Band 9 specifications. At these frequencies, atmospheric transmission is very low but still sufficient to detect bright lines in Orion-KL. We present the collected spectra and compare with surveys from the literature, demonstrating the capabilities of the instrument.
The influence of homogeneity disorder degree of the thin superconducting NbN film across of Si wa... more The influence of homogeneity disorder degree of the thin superconducting NbN film across of Si wafer on characteristics of the Hot Electron Bolometers (HEB) has been investigated. Our experiments have been carried out near the superconducting transition and far below it. The high homogeneity disorder degree of the NbN film has been achieved by preparing the Si substrate surface. The fabricated HEBs all have almost identical R (T) characteristics with a dispersion of Tc and the normal resistance R300 of not more than 0.15K and 2 Ω, respectively. The quality of the devises allows us to demonstrate clearly the influence of non-equilibrium processes in the S'SS' system on the device performance. Our fabrication technology also allows creating multiplex heterodyne and direct detector matrices based the HEB devices. [1] INTRODUCTION The disordered thin superconducting NbN film has found an application as a sensitive element in bolometric detectors of terahertz and infrared ranges,...
Over the last few years, we developed high-performance sideband- separating (2SB) mixers for 600-... more Over the last few years, we developed high-performance sideband- separating (2SB) mixers for 600-720 GHz (Band 9) and 790-950 GHz (Band 10). The former have successfully been commissioned in the SEPIA front- end at APEX. On-sky image rejection ratios in excess of 24dB have been recorded for the CO(6-5) line at 691 GHz and the water maser line at 658 GHz, while lab testing shows 15dB or better over an extended RF band of about 580-740GHz. Noise temperature is better than 200K (SSB) over most of the band. The receiver cartridge has four 4-12 GHz IF outputs and is fully ALMA-frontend compatible. We intend to extend the IF bandwidth even further in the near future. The new Band 790-950 GHz 2SB mixer (intended for the FLASH front-end at APEX) has been tested in the lab recently and shows comparable performance characteristics. We see these mixers, with circulator-less wideband IF infrastructure, as an attractive upgrade for the highest ALMA bands.
This paper describes the design of the Band 9 receiver cartridges for the Atacama Large Millimete... more This paper describes the design of the Band 9 receiver cartridges for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). These are field-replaceable heterodyne front-ends offering high sensitivities, 602-720 GHz frequency coverage, 4-12 GHz IF bandwidths, and high quasioptical efficiencies. Because the project will ultimately require 64 cartridges to fully populate the ALMA array, two key aspects of the design of the Band 9 cartridge have been to take advantage of commercial manufacturing capabilities and to simplify the assembly of the cartridge. Preliminary test results of the first (prototype) cartridge are also presented.
We describe the design, performance, and commissioning results for the new ALMA Band 5 receiver c... more We describe the design, performance, and commissioning results for the new ALMA Band 5 receiver channel, 163–211 GHz, which is in the final stage of full deployment and expected to be available for observations in 2018. This manuscript provides the description of the new ALMA Band 5 receiver cartridge and serves as a reference for observers using the ALMA Band 5 receiver for observations. At the time of writing this paper, the ALMA Band 5 Production Consortium consisting of NOVA Instrumentation group, based in Groningen, NL, and GARD in Sweden have produced and delivered to ALMA Observatory over 60 receiver cartridges. All 60 cartridges fulfil the new more stringent specifications for Band 5 and demonstrate excellent noise temperatures, typically below 45 K single sideband (SSB) at 4 K detector physical temperature and below 35 K SSB at 3.5 K (typical for operation at the ALMA Frontend), providing the average sideband rejection better than 15 dB, and the integrated cross-polarizatio...
Context. We describe the new Swedish-ESO PI Instrument for APEX (SEPIA) receiver, which was desig... more Context. We describe the new Swedish-ESO PI Instrument for APEX (SEPIA) receiver, which was designed and built by the Group for Advanced Receiver Development (GARD), at Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) in collaboration with ESO. It was installed and commissioned at the APEX telescope during 2015 with an ALMA Band 5 receiver channel and updated with a new frequency channel (ALMA Band 9) in February 2016. Aim. This manuscript aims to provide, for observers who use the SEPIA receiver, a reference in terms of the hardware description, optics and performance as well as the commissioning results. Methods. Out of three available receiver cartridge positions in SEPIA, the two current frequency channels, corresponding to ALMA Band 5, the RF band 158–211 GHz, and Band 9, the RF band 600–722 GHz, provide state-of-the-art dual polarization receivers. The Band 5 frequency channel uses 2SB SIS mixers with an average SSB noise temperature around 45 K with IF (intermediate frequency) band 4–8 GHz for...
2012 37th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, 2012
ABSTRACT We have built a 2SB mixer, which has demonstrated a sideband rejection ratio as high as ... more ABSTRACT We have built a 2SB mixer, which has demonstrated a sideband rejection ratio as high as 15 dB over the full band of 600-720 GHz and the SSB noise temperature between 200 and 370 K. Both sideband ration and noise temperature are well within the ALMA specifications.
Th e Atacama L arge Millimeter I nterferometer (ALMA) (1) sit e is an o bservatory which consists... more Th e Atacama L arge Millimeter I nterferometer (ALMA) (1) sit e is an o bservatory which consists of more than fifty 12 meter diameter sub-mm telescopes, locat ed at an altitude of 5000 m in t he Atacama desert in Chile. It covers the 30-950 GHz frequency range which is divided into ten bands following the atmospheric transmission w indows. ALMA fro nt- ends w ill be u sing Superconductor-Insulato r-Superconductor (SIS) heterodyne mixers as the key sensitive elements for a ll of its high frequency bands. The ALMA band 9 receiver which covers 600-720 GHz is being developed in t he Neth erlands. Th e first eight rec eivers h ave already been built base d on AlOx barrier SIS junctions mixers. These mixers have excellent noise temperature but show limited RF and IF ba ndwidth. Using new AlN bar rier highe r c urrent density SIS junctions, it is possible to improve on the RF and IF bandwidth of SIS mixe rs thus makin g this te chnology significantly more attra ctive f or th e u se in l a...
... AM Baryshevl, R. Hesperl, BD Jackson2, P. Mena', J. Barkhoe, T. Zijstra3, C. Lodewij... more ... AM Baryshevl, R. Hesperl, BD Jackson2, P. Mena', J. Barkhoe, T. Zijstra3, C. Lodewijk3, G. Gerlofsmal, J. Adema', R. Rivas4, K. Keizer2, M. Bekemal, A. Koops', W. Wild'2, and TM Klapwijk3 ... pOlarizaton 1 -C urrent,unp. FLO 698 GHz -- Current, cold IF power, unp. ...
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is a collaboration between Europe, North America, and J... more The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is a collaboration between Europe, North America, and Japan to build an aperture synthesis telescope with more than 50 12-m antennas at 5000 m altitude in Chile. In its full configuration, ALMA will observe in 10 bands between 30 and 950 GHz, and will provide astronomers with unprecedented sensitivity and spatial resolution at millimetre
2019 44th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz), 2019
Sideband Ratio or so called Image Rejection Ration (IRR), is one of the key figures of merit of s... more Sideband Ratio or so called Image Rejection Ration (IRR), is one of the key figures of merit of sideband separating (2SB) receivers. Although these kind of receivers are widely used in ground-based astronomy, a full description of their IRR pattern has not been performed yet. To solve this problem we have simulated the entire 2SB SIS receiver by combining models of RF and IF chains. It was found that a bottle neck of the IRR performance is not in an imbalance of individual RF and IF components, but in system imbalances determined by parasitic reflections in RF and IF chains. Using that knowledge we have built a 2SB receiver based on SIS mixers for the APEX telescope in Chile, which has a state-of-the-art performance at frequencies 600-720 GHz.
Three tuning parameters are key to SIS performance: SIS bias voltage, LO pumping level and Joseph... more Three tuning parameters are key to SIS performance: SIS bias voltage, LO pumping level and Josephson current suppression. The former two are relatively easy to perform automatically, although there are a couple of pitfalls. The suppression of the Josephson current, however, is much more complicated, especially in the high-current-density AlN-barrier junctions used in ALMA Band 9. The tuning parameter sets that were supplied with the receivers were always biased towards safer and more repeatable regimes for operational reasons. Here we present results of the ALMA Band 9 Advanced Tuning Study commissioned by ESO. The objective of this study is to investigate more "intelligent" tuning algorithms which should enable the receivers to operate in more critical regimes that were previously avoided, but with possibly a considerable increase in performance.
We present here the performance of SIS mixers for upgrade of CHAMP+ array instrument on APEX tele... more We present here the performance of SIS mixers for upgrade of CHAMP+ array instrument on APEX telescope. In total it includes 14 mixers: 7 for the low band (600-720 GHz) and 7 for the high band (790-950 GHz). The mixers are a replacement for the existing set, which was commissioned on APEX in 2006. The low band mixers are based on Nb/AlN/Nb single tunneling SIS junction and high band ones -on Nb/AlN/NbN SIS twin junctions. The corrected DSB noise temperature of the low band mixers is roughly between 60 K and 120 K for the entire frequency range, and the corrected DSB noise temperature of the high band mixers varies from about 200 K at low frequencies to 400 K at the high end.
We presented here the design and the first results of a new sideband separating (2SB) mixer for 8... more We presented here the design and the first results of a new sideband separating (2SB) mixer for 800--950\,GHz, based on superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions. This is the first waveguide 2SB SIS mixer demonstrated at such a high frequency. The design is following the classical quadrature hybrid architecture, meanwhile additional attention was put on the reduction of reflections in the RF structure in order to minimize the RF imbalance, to achieve a high image rejection ratio (IRR). The RF waveguide block was manufactured by micro-milling and populated by single-ended SIS mixers developed earlier for upgrade of the CHAMP+ high band array on the APEX telescope. These SIS mixers have DSB noise temperatures from 210 to 400\,K. The assembled 2SB mixer yields a single-sideband noise temperature from 450 to 900\,K, with an image rejection ratio above 15dB in 95\% of the band. Comparing the DSB and SSB sensitivities, we find that the waveguide losses are as low as expected...
Th e Atacama L arge Millimeter I nterferometer (ALMA) (1) sit e is an o bservatory which consists... more Th e Atacama L arge Millimeter I nterferometer (ALMA) (1) sit e is an o bservatory which consists of more than fifty 12 meter diameter sub-mm telescopes, locat ed at an altitude of 5000 m in t he Atacama desert in Chile. It covers the 30-950 GHz frequency range which is divided into ten bands following the atmospheric transmission w indows. ALMA fro nt- ends w ill be u sing Superconductor-Insulato r-Superconductor (SIS) heterodyne mixers as the key sensitive elements for a ll of its high frequency bands. The ALMA band 9 receiver which covers 600-720 GHz is being developed in t he Neth erlands. Th e first eight rec eivers h ave already been built base d on AlOx barrier SIS junctions mixers. These mixers have excellent noise temperature but show limited RF and IF ba ndwidth. Using new AlN bar rier highe r c urrent density SIS junctions, it is possible to improve on the RF and IF bandwidth of SIS mixe rs thus makin g this te chnology significantly more attra ctive f or th e u se in l a...
During Science Verification of the new SEPIA660 facility receiver at APEX, we carried out a shall... more During Science Verification of the new SEPIA660 facility receiver at APEX, we carried out a shallow line survey of the archetypal Kleinmann- Low Nebula in the Orion star forming region (Orion-KL). These observations cover the tuning range towards the band edges, which has recently been extended beyond ALMA Band 9 specifications. At these frequencies, atmospheric transmission is very low but still sufficient to detect bright lines in Orion-KL. We present the collected spectra and compare with surveys from the literature, demonstrating the capabilities of the instrument.
The influence of homogeneity disorder degree of the thin superconducting NbN film across of Si wa... more The influence of homogeneity disorder degree of the thin superconducting NbN film across of Si wafer on characteristics of the Hot Electron Bolometers (HEB) has been investigated. Our experiments have been carried out near the superconducting transition and far below it. The high homogeneity disorder degree of the NbN film has been achieved by preparing the Si substrate surface. The fabricated HEBs all have almost identical R (T) characteristics with a dispersion of Tc and the normal resistance R300 of not more than 0.15K and 2 Ω, respectively. The quality of the devises allows us to demonstrate clearly the influence of non-equilibrium processes in the S'SS' system on the device performance. Our fabrication technology also allows creating multiplex heterodyne and direct detector matrices based the HEB devices. [1] INTRODUCTION The disordered thin superconducting NbN film has found an application as a sensitive element in bolometric detectors of terahertz and infrared ranges,...
Over the last few years, we developed high-performance sideband- separating (2SB) mixers for 600-... more Over the last few years, we developed high-performance sideband- separating (2SB) mixers for 600-720 GHz (Band 9) and 790-950 GHz (Band 10). The former have successfully been commissioned in the SEPIA front- end at APEX. On-sky image rejection ratios in excess of 24dB have been recorded for the CO(6-5) line at 691 GHz and the water maser line at 658 GHz, while lab testing shows 15dB or better over an extended RF band of about 580-740GHz. Noise temperature is better than 200K (SSB) over most of the band. The receiver cartridge has four 4-12 GHz IF outputs and is fully ALMA-frontend compatible. We intend to extend the IF bandwidth even further in the near future. The new Band 790-950 GHz 2SB mixer (intended for the FLASH front-end at APEX) has been tested in the lab recently and shows comparable performance characteristics. We see these mixers, with circulator-less wideband IF infrastructure, as an attractive upgrade for the highest ALMA bands.
This paper describes the design of the Band 9 receiver cartridges for the Atacama Large Millimete... more This paper describes the design of the Band 9 receiver cartridges for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). These are field-replaceable heterodyne front-ends offering high sensitivities, 602-720 GHz frequency coverage, 4-12 GHz IF bandwidths, and high quasioptical efficiencies. Because the project will ultimately require 64 cartridges to fully populate the ALMA array, two key aspects of the design of the Band 9 cartridge have been to take advantage of commercial manufacturing capabilities and to simplify the assembly of the cartridge. Preliminary test results of the first (prototype) cartridge are also presented.
We describe the design, performance, and commissioning results for the new ALMA Band 5 receiver c... more We describe the design, performance, and commissioning results for the new ALMA Band 5 receiver channel, 163–211 GHz, which is in the final stage of full deployment and expected to be available for observations in 2018. This manuscript provides the description of the new ALMA Band 5 receiver cartridge and serves as a reference for observers using the ALMA Band 5 receiver for observations. At the time of writing this paper, the ALMA Band 5 Production Consortium consisting of NOVA Instrumentation group, based in Groningen, NL, and GARD in Sweden have produced and delivered to ALMA Observatory over 60 receiver cartridges. All 60 cartridges fulfil the new more stringent specifications for Band 5 and demonstrate excellent noise temperatures, typically below 45 K single sideband (SSB) at 4 K detector physical temperature and below 35 K SSB at 3.5 K (typical for operation at the ALMA Frontend), providing the average sideband rejection better than 15 dB, and the integrated cross-polarizatio...
Context. We describe the new Swedish-ESO PI Instrument for APEX (SEPIA) receiver, which was desig... more Context. We describe the new Swedish-ESO PI Instrument for APEX (SEPIA) receiver, which was designed and built by the Group for Advanced Receiver Development (GARD), at Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) in collaboration with ESO. It was installed and commissioned at the APEX telescope during 2015 with an ALMA Band 5 receiver channel and updated with a new frequency channel (ALMA Band 9) in February 2016. Aim. This manuscript aims to provide, for observers who use the SEPIA receiver, a reference in terms of the hardware description, optics and performance as well as the commissioning results. Methods. Out of three available receiver cartridge positions in SEPIA, the two current frequency channels, corresponding to ALMA Band 5, the RF band 158–211 GHz, and Band 9, the RF band 600–722 GHz, provide state-of-the-art dual polarization receivers. The Band 5 frequency channel uses 2SB SIS mixers with an average SSB noise temperature around 45 K with IF (intermediate frequency) band 4–8 GHz for...
2012 37th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, 2012
ABSTRACT We have built a 2SB mixer, which has demonstrated a sideband rejection ratio as high as ... more ABSTRACT We have built a 2SB mixer, which has demonstrated a sideband rejection ratio as high as 15 dB over the full band of 600-720 GHz and the SSB noise temperature between 200 and 370 K. Both sideband ration and noise temperature are well within the ALMA specifications.
Th e Atacama L arge Millimeter I nterferometer (ALMA) (1) sit e is an o bservatory which consists... more Th e Atacama L arge Millimeter I nterferometer (ALMA) (1) sit e is an o bservatory which consists of more than fifty 12 meter diameter sub-mm telescopes, locat ed at an altitude of 5000 m in t he Atacama desert in Chile. It covers the 30-950 GHz frequency range which is divided into ten bands following the atmospheric transmission w indows. ALMA fro nt- ends w ill be u sing Superconductor-Insulato r-Superconductor (SIS) heterodyne mixers as the key sensitive elements for a ll of its high frequency bands. The ALMA band 9 receiver which covers 600-720 GHz is being developed in t he Neth erlands. Th e first eight rec eivers h ave already been built base d on AlOx barrier SIS junctions mixers. These mixers have excellent noise temperature but show limited RF and IF ba ndwidth. Using new AlN bar rier highe r c urrent density SIS junctions, it is possible to improve on the RF and IF bandwidth of SIS mixe rs thus makin g this te chnology significantly more attra ctive f or th e u se in l a...
... AM Baryshevl, R. Hesperl, BD Jackson2, P. Mena', J. Barkhoe, T. Zijstra3, C. Lodewij... more ... AM Baryshevl, R. Hesperl, BD Jackson2, P. Mena', J. Barkhoe, T. Zijstra3, C. Lodewijk3, G. Gerlofsmal, J. Adema', R. Rivas4, K. Keizer2, M. Bekemal, A. Koops', W. Wild'2, and TM Klapwijk3 ... pOlarizaton 1 -C urrent,unp. FLO 698 GHz -- Current, cold IF power, unp. ...
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is a collaboration between Europe, North America, and J... more The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is a collaboration between Europe, North America, and Japan to build an aperture synthesis telescope with more than 50 12-m antennas at 5000 m altitude in Chile. In its full configuration, ALMA will observe in 10 bands between 30 and 950 GHz, and will provide astronomers with unprecedented sensitivity and spatial resolution at millimetre
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