Novel High Performance Feed Horns for Large Format Arrays at Millimetre and Submillimetre Wavelengths.

用于毫米和亚毫米波长大幅面阵列的新型高性能馈源喇叭。

• 批准号: ST/H003029/1
• 负责人: Ghassan Yassin
• 金额: $ 7.69万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FH003029%2F1
• 关键词: Novel; Performance; Feed; Horns; Large

The ability to rapidly map large areas of the sky to a high sensitivity is of prime importance for many scientific goals at mm and sub-mm wavelengths. The next generation of telescopes will incorporate hundreds or thousands of horns feeding ultra-sensitive detectors into focal plane array receivers. Therefore, the ability to manufacture large numbers of high quality telescope feed horns rapidly, reliably and at a manageable cost is vitally important. Traditionally, focal plane arrays of radio and submillimeter telescope receivers have employed corrugated horns to couple power form the sky to the detectors. This is because they exhibit excellent beam patterns over bandwidths of up to 50%. To give the required high performance however, these horns must have many 1/4 wavelength deep azimuthal grooves (corrugations) along their interiors. This makes them extremely difficult and expensive at increasingly smaller wavelengths. For the next generation of large format focal-plane arrays, with many hundreds or thousands of such horns, the cost of the corrugated horns alone can be a significant fraction (~50%) of the entire cost of the complete receiver. Another disadvantage of corrugated horns is that the wall needs to be thick enough to accommodate relatively deep corrugations. This makes them too heavy for key applications such as space telescopes and communication systems at microwave frequencies where the weight of only a few horns could prove to be problematic. The Oxford Astrophysics group have developed smooth-walled horns which are much easier and cheaper to fabricate than corrugated horns, in collaboration with researchers at Mahidol University, Thailand. These horns only require one or more discontinuities in the flare angle near the throat of the horn to excite the right balance of higher-order waveguide modes. We optimise the positions of these discontinuities, using a software suite that we have developed for this purpose. Our fully optimized horns show excellent beam pattern over a significant (30%) operating bandwidth. The relatively simple geometry of our horn designs allows them to be manufactured using rapid, low-cost fabrication techniques. We have developed a technique which involves directly machining the horns by using an appropriately shaped tool to drill the horns into a block of aluminum. This technique will make it possible to quickly fabricate large format arrays of horns by simply drilling repeatedly into a single plate of aluminum. We have successfully fabricated and tested individual prototype 230 GHz horns using this technique and found that they give the expected beam patterns by theory. The commercial opportunity for the high performance Oxford smooth-walled feed horns is massive and at half the price, they are likely to replace the conventional corrugated horns in many applications. The target markets would include research groups building mm and sub-mm astronomical receivers, remote earth sensing, space based satellite communications and earth based telecommunications and radar applications. In this grant application we are requesting support to develop a completely new technology which is a spin-off of academic research supported by the STFC. As a result a relatively small amount of development fund is required to bring it to the stage of commercialisation. The products includes software licensing, design according to customer specifications and a product at less then half the cost of existing technology and much faster time of delivery. Our effort of commercialisation is supported by Isis Innovation Limited, the technology transfer subsidiary company of the University of Oxford.

以高灵敏度快速绘制大面积天空的能力对于毫米和亚毫米波长的许多科学目标至关重要。下一代望远镜将把数百或数千个角状物馈送到焦平面阵列接收器中的超灵敏探测器。因此，快速、可靠地制造大量高质量的望远镜馈源喇叭的能力是至关重要的。传统上，无线电和亚毫米望远镜接收器的焦平面阵列采用波纹喇叭将来自天空的能量耦合到探测器。这是因为它们在高达50%的带宽上表现出出色的波束方向图。然而，为了提供所需的高性能，这些喇叭必须沿其内部沿着具有许多1/4波长深的方位槽（波纹）。这使得它们在越来越小的波长下变得非常困难和昂贵。对于下一代大格式焦平面阵列，具有数百或数千个这样的喇叭，单独的波纹喇叭的成本可以是整个接收器的总成本的很大一部分（~50%）。波纹状喇叭的另一个缺点是壁需要足够厚以容纳相对深的波纹。这使得它们对于诸如太空望远镜和微波频率通信系统等关键应用来说太重了，在这些应用中，只有几个喇叭的重量可能会被证明是有问题的。牛津天体物理小组与泰国玛希隆大学的研究人员合作，开发出了光滑壁的喇叭，这种喇叭比波纹喇叭更容易制造，也更便宜。这些喇叭仅需要喇叭喉部附近的张角中的一个或多个不连续性来激发高阶波导模式的正确平衡。我们优化这些不连续性的位置，使用我们为此目的开发的软件套件。我们经过全面优化的喇叭在显著的（30%）工作带宽内显示出出色的波束方向图。我们的喇叭设计相对简单的几何形状使它们能够使用快速，低成本的制造技术制造。我们已经开发出一种技术，它涉及直接机加工的喇叭使用适当形状的工具钻喇叭成一块铝。这项技术将使人们有可能通过简单地重复钻孔到一个单一的铝板快速制造大格式阵列的喇叭。我们已经成功地制造和测试个人原型230 GHz喇叭使用这种技术，并发现他们给出了预期的波束模式的理论。高性能牛津光滑壁馈电喇叭的商业机会是巨大的，价格只有一半，它们很可能在许多应用中取代传统的波纹喇叭。目标市场将包括建造毫米和亚毫米天文接收器、地球遥感、天基卫星通信和陆基电信和雷达应用的研究小组。在这项资助申请中，我们要求支持开发一项全新的技术，该技术是STFC支持的学术研究的衍生产品。因此，需要相对少量的开发资金才能使其进入商业化阶段。这些产品包括软件许可证、根据客户规格进行设计，以及成本不到现有技术一半的产品和更快的交付时间。我们的商业化努力得到了牛津大学技术转让子公司Isis Innovation Limited的支持。

项目成果

Experimental Investigation of a Low-Cost, High Performance Focal-Plane Horn Array

• DOI: 10.1109/tthz.2011.2177701
• 发表时间: 2012
• 期刊: IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: J. Leech;B. Tan;G. Yassin;P. Kittara;S. Wangsuya

Multiple flare-angle horn feeds for sub-mm astronomy and cosmic microwave background experiments

• DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201117124
• 发表时间: 2011-08
• 期刊: Astronomy and Astrophysics
• 影响因子: 6.5
• 作者: J. Leech;B. Tan;G. Yassin;P. Kittara;S. Wangsuya;J. Treuttel;M. Henry;M. Oldfield;P. Huggard

Easy to fabricate feeds for astronomical receivers

易于制造天文接收器的馈源

• DOI: 10.1109/iwat.2013.6518288
• 发表时间: 2013
• 作者: Yassin G

Measured performance of a 230 GHz prototype focal-plane feedhorn array made by direct drilling of smooth-walled horns

• 发表时间: 2010-03
• 作者: J. Leech;B. Tan;G. Yassin;P. Kittara;A. Jiralucksanawong;S. Wangsuya

The experimental demonstration of a low-cost 37-horn focal-plane array consisting of smooth-walled multiple flare-angle horns fabricated by direct drilling

直接钻孔制造的由光滑壁多喇叭角喇叭组成的低成本37喇叭焦平面阵列的实验演示

• 发表时间: 2011
• 作者: {Leech}, J.;{Tan}, B.~K.;{Yassin}, G.;{Kittara}, P.;{Wangsuya}, S.
• 通讯作者: {Wangsuya}, S.