Softwaretechnik-Trends

Space-qualified SIS mixers for Herschel Space Observatory's HIFI Band 1 instrument

Y. Delorme, Morvan C. Salez, B. Lecomte, I. Péron, Frédéric Dauplay, A. Féret, J. Spatazza, Jean-Michel Krieg, Karl-Friedrich Schuster

Published May 1, 2005• 7 citations

OpenAlex

Abstract

We have developed a wideband SIS mixer for the heterodyne instrument (HIFI Band 1) of ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory. This double-sideband mixer uses twin Nb/AlOx/Nb junctions and, without any mechanical tuner, covers a relative bandwidth greater than 30%, optimized in the Band 1 frequency range from 480 to 640 GHz . Two identical mixers will be used in orthogonal polarizations to make up the HIFI Band 1 receiver, which, with Bands 2 to 5, will be the first SIS receivers to ever fly in space. Therefore our mixers design and fabrication process include several innovations to meet the specifications requested by a space environment, such as high operation reliability, robustness to vibration, thermal variation and cosmic irradiation. This paper presents the characteristics of the flight model and the space qualification tests performed on the qualification model. The mixer’s performance analysis confirms that it has a very low noise (less than 3 times the quantum limit) over the entire bandwidth, as expected from early simulations.

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