Wide-Band Spectrometers at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory

加州理工学院亚毫米波天文台（CSO）旨在 工作在200-900 GHz频段。 未来的高敏感性研究 恒星形成区和星系的形成都需要一个 谱线探测器阵列 的技术发展 大多数所需的元素，如探测器和 前置放大器相当先进，但不方便 对于具有低成本的灵活的宽带光谱仪存在解决方案， 功耗、体积、成本和高可靠性，适用于 用于复制到25个或更多元素。 该奖项将支持定制的开发-非常大 带宽至少为1GHz的尺度积分（VLSI）相关器 200个独立频道 它将有大约10 由于高性能， 封装密度和高速的建议定制超大规模集成电路 技术. 大多数相关器组件将在一个 集成电路，因此多元件复制 这一过程将比其他方法更简单，更便宜。 的设计. 预期的体积和功耗是 比现有最佳替代品低10倍。 这 因子使得光谱仪阵列可行。 本项目使 DARPA/NSF MOSIS设施。

The Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) is designed to operate in the 200-900 GHz band. Future high-sensitivity studies of both star-formation regions and galaxies will require a spectral-line detector array. The technological development of most of the required elements, such as detectors and preamplifiers is reasonably well-advanced, but no convenient solution exists for a flexible, wide-band spectrometer with low power-dissipation, volume, cost and high reliability, suitable for replicating to 25 or more elements. This award will support the development of a custom-Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) correlator of at least 1 GHz bandwidth and 200 independent channels. It will have roughly 10 times the performance of existing designs due to the high packing-density and high speed of the proposed custom-VLSI technology. Most of the correlator components will be on one integrated circuit, and therefore the multi-element replication process will be much simpler and cheaper than with alternative designs. The anticipated volume and power consumption are a factor of 10 less than for the best available alternatives. This factor makes the spectrometer array feasible. This project makes use of the DARPA/NSF MOSIS Facility.