Monolithic Integrated Circuits for Millimeter-Wave Radio Astronomy

AST-9532046摘要：本项目的目标是开发高灵敏度和低复制成本的毫米波集成电路，以便能够制造用于射电天文学的50到1000像素的焦平面阵列。这些阵列的噪声温度应该与使用SIS混频器的最好的单像素接收器相媲美，但成本低得多，操作也更简单。该项目范围广泛，涵盖焦平面阵列系统的许多方面。包括以下主题：1)优化高电子迁移率晶体管(HEMT)材料组成，以在低温下提供最低的噪声。2.)设计、制造和测试覆盖33-50、65-90和85-115 GHz频段的MMIC低噪声放大器。每种类型的至少30个MMIC将作为样本提供给射电天文观测站进行评估。

AST-9532046 Summary: The objective of this project is to develop millimeter-wave integrated circuits (MMIC's) with high sensitivity and low replication cost to enable the fabrication of focal-plane arrays with 50 to 1000 pixels for use in radio astronomy. These arrays should have noise temperatures competitive with the best single pixel receivers using SIS mixers, but with vastly lower cost and simpler operation. The project has a wide scope to cover many aspects of focal- plane array systems. The following topics are included: 1) Optimization of high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) material composition to provide lowest noise at cryogenic temperatures. 2.) Design, fabrication, and testing of MMIC low-noise amplifiers to cover the bands of 33-50, 65-90, and 85-115 GHz. A minimum of 30 MMIC's of each type will be made available as samples for evaluation at radio astronomy observatories.