Technology developments for a scalable heterodyne MMIC array at W-band

TL;DR

This paper presents the development of a scalable, modular heterodyne W-band MMIC array technology for large astronomical arrays, featuring integrated MMIC modules with low noise and high gain.

Contribution

It introduces a mass-producible, modular receiver design using integrated MMIC modules with state-of-the-art noise performance for large-scale W-band arrays.

Findings

Prototype MMIC module achieved 41 K noise temperature from 82-100 GHz.

The module demonstrated 29 dB gain at 15 K.

Design enables scalable and mass-producible W-band heterodyne arrays.

Abstract

We report on the development of W-band (75-110 GHz) heterodyne receiver technology for large-format astronomical arrays. The receiver system is designed to be both mass-producible, so that the designs could be scaled to thousands of receiver elements, and modular. Most of the receiver function- ality is integrated into compact Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) amplifier-based multichip modules. The MMIC modules include a chain of InP MMIC low-noise amplifiers, coupled-line bandpass filters and sub-harmonic Schottky diode mixers. The receiver signals will be routed to and from the MMIC modules on a multilayer high frequency laminate, which includes splitters, amplifiers, and frequency doublers. A prototype MMIC module has exhibited a band-averaged noise temperature of 41 K from 82-100 GHz and a gain of 29 dB at 15 K, which is the state- of-the-art for heterodyne multi-chip modules.