Erik Sundin

A Swedish heterodyne facility instrument for the APEX telescope

Aims. In March 2008, the APEX facility instrument was installed on the telescope at the site of Lliano Chajnantor in northern Chile. The main objective of the paper is to introduce the new instrument to the radio astronomical community. It describes the hardware configuration and presents some initial results from the on-sky commissioning. Methods. The heterodyne instrument covers frequencies between 211 GHz and 1390 GHz divided into four bands. The first three bands are sideband-separating mixers operating in a single sideband mode and based on superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) tunnel junctions. The fourth band is a hot-electron bolometer, waveguide balanced mixer. All bands are integrated in a closedcycle temperature-stabilized cryostat and are cooled to 4 K. Results. We present results from noise temperature, sideband separation ratios, beam, and stability measurements performed on the telescope as a part of the receiver technical commissioning. Examples of broad extragalactic lines are also included.

A 1.3-THz Balanced Waveguide HEB Mixer for the APEX Telescope

In this paper, we report about the development, fabrication, and characterization of a balanced waveguide hot electron bolometer (HEB) receiver for the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment telescope covering the frequency band of 1.25-1.39 THz. The receiver uses a quadrature balanced scheme and two HEB mixers, fabricated from 4- to 5-nm-thick NbN film deposited on crystalline quartz substrate with an MgO buffer layer in between. We employed a novel micromachining method to produce all-metal waveguide parts at submicrometer accuracy (the main-mode waveguide dimensions are 90 times 180 mum ). We present details on the mixer design and measurement results, including receiver noise performance, stability and ldquofirst-lightrdquo at the telescope site. The receiver yields a double-sideband noise temperature averaged over the RF band below 1200 K, and outstanding stability with a spectroscopic Allan time more than 200 s.

Performance of the First ALMA Band 5 Production Cartridge

We present performance of the first ALMA Band 5 production cartridge, covering frequencies from 163 to 211 GHz. Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) Band 5 is a dual polarization, sideband separation (2SB) receiver based on all Niobium (Nb) superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) tunnel junction mixers, providing 16 GHz of instantaneous RF bandwidth for astronomy observations. The 2SB mixer for each polarization employs a quadrature configuration. The sideband separation occurs at the output of the IF hybrid that has integrated bias-T for biasing the mixers, and is produced using superconducting thin-film technology. Experimental verification of the Band 5 cold cartridge performed together with warm cartridge assembly, confirms that the system noise temperature is below 45 K over most of the RF band, which is less than 5 photon noise (5 hf/k). This is to our knowledge, the best results reported at these frequencies. The measurement of the sideband rejection indicates that the sideband rejection is better than 10 dB over 90% of the observational band.

Facility heterodyne receiver for the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment Telescope

APEX, the Atacama PAthflnder Experiment (APEX) Telescope, is a partnership between Max Planck Institut fur Radioastronomie (in collaboration with Astronomisches Institut Ruhr Universitat Bochum (AIRUB)), Onsala Space Observatory and the European Southern Observatory. The telescope antenna, supplied by VERTEX Antennentechnik, is a 12 m antenna with a 17 mum rms surface accuracy operating at the Atacama Desert in the Chilean Andes at a 5100 m altitude. The APEX heterodyne facility receiver is placed in the telescope Nasmyth Cabin A. The receivers are coupled to the antenna via relay optics allowing the operation of two different Pi-type instruments and a 6-channel facility heterodyne receiver to cover approximately 210 - 1500 GHz frequency range while providing frequency independent illumination of the secondary. In this report, we present details on the optics for the APEX facility heterodyne receiver and details of its design. The report includes a very brief review of the APEX Band 1, 211 - 270 GHz, Band 2, 270 - 370 GHz, Band 3, 385 - 500 GHz, all based on sideband separation SIS mixer technology and Band T2, 1250 - 1390 GHz, a balanced waveguide HEB mixer, all developed by GARD.

A sideband separating mixer for 85-115 GHz

This paper presents the results of development and tests of a sideband separating heterodyne receiver for the 85-115 GHz band with superconducting tunnel junctions (SIS) as frequency down converters. Sideband separation is achieved by using a quadrature scheme where two identical mixer junctions are pumped by a local oscillator (LO) with 90/spl deg/ phase difference. We used an innovative mixer layout where the quadrature scheme is implemented using waveguide-based and integrated on-chip components. We employed an additional pair of SIS junctions as terminations for LO-injection directional couplers.

SEPIA - a new single pixel receiver at the APEX Telescope

Context: We describe the new SEPIA (Swedish-ESO PI Instrument for APEX) 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. Aims: 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 45K with IF (intermediate frequency) band 4--8 GHz for each sideband providing total 4x4 GHz IF band. The Band 9 frequency channel uses DSB SIS mixers with a noise temperature of 75--125K with IF band 4--12 GHz for each polarization. Results: Both current SEPIA receiver channels are available to all APEX observers.

A new 3 mm band receiver for the Onsala 20 m antenna

A new receiver for the Onsala 20 m antenna with the possibility of being equipped with 3 mm and 4 mm bands has been built and the 3 mm channel has been commissioned during the Spring 2014. For single-dish operation, the receiver uses an innovative on-source/off-source optical switch. In combination with additional optical components and within the same optical layout, the switch provides two calibration loads (for the 3 mm and 4 mm channels), sideband rejection measurement, and tuning possibilities. The optical layout of the receiver employs all cold (4 K) offset elliptical mirrors for both channels, whereas the on-off switch employs flat mirrors only. The 3 mm channel employs a sideband separation (2SB) dual polarization receiver with orthomode transducer (OMT), 4-8 GHz intermediate frequency (IF), x? 2pol x? upper and lower sidebands (USB? +? LSB). The cryostat has four optical windows made of high density polyethylene (HDPE) with anti-reflection corrugations, two for the signal and two for each frequency band cold load. The cryostat uses a two-stage cryocooler produced by Sumitomo HI? RDK? 408D2 with anti-vibration suspension of the cold-head to minimize impact of the vibrations on the receiver stability. The local oscillator (LO) system is based on a Gunn oscillator with aphase lock loop (PLL) and four mechanical tuners for broadband operation, providing independently tunable LO power for each polarization. This paper provides a technical description of the receiver and its technology and could be useful for instrumentation engineers and observers using the Onsala 20 m telescope.

ALMA Band 5 receiver cartridge - Design, performance, and commissioning

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-polarization level better than –25 dB. The 70 warm cartridge assemblies, hosting Band 5 local oscillator and DC bias electronics, have been produced and delivered to ALMA by NRAO. The commissioning results confirm the excellent performance of the receivers.

Design and performance of ALMA band 5 receiver cartridge

ALMA, Atacama Large Millimetre Array, covers the frequency band from 30 GHz to 960 GHz in ten separate frequency bands. We present here the design and performance of the ALMA Band 5 receiver cartridge that covers 163–211 GHz. The Band 5 receiver shows the state-of-the-art performance with the noise temperature below 65K (SSB) and sideband rejection above 12 dB over 80% of the RF band.

Performance of a sideband separating SIS mixer for 85-115 GHz

We present results of the development and measurements of a heterodyne sideband separating SIS mixer for 85-115 GHz band. The sideband separation is achieved by using a quadrature scheme where a local oscillator (LO) pumps two identical mixer junctions with 90° phase difference. A key component in the mixer is a waveguide to microstrip double probe transition used as a power divider to split the input RF signal and to provide transition from waveguide to microstrip line. The double probe transition enables the integration of all mixer components on a single compact substrate. The design also involves coupled lines directional couplers to introduce the LO power to the mixer junctions. An additional pair of SIS junctions is used to provide termination loads for the idle ports of the couplers. Several mixer chips were tested and similar and consistent performance was obtained. The best single sideband noise temperature is below 40 K with IF bandwidth 3.4-4.6 GHz. The sideband suppression ratio is better than 12 dB for both sidebands across the entire RF band. The mixer was also successfully tested with 4-8 GHz IF band. In this paper we present complete mixer characterization data.