The LSPE-Strip feed horn array

TL;DR

This paper details the design, manufacturing, and testing of the feed horn array for the LSPE-Strip microwave telescope, enabling polarization measurements of the sky in the Q- and W-bands for cosmological and atmospheric studies.

Contribution

It presents the first comprehensive development and characterization of the LSPE-Strip feed horn array, including design, manufacturing, and performance verification.

Findings

Successful design and fabrication of the feed horn array.

Detailed characterization confirming performance specifications.

Enabling polarization observations in Q- and W-bands for cosmology and atmospheric research.

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the design, manufacturing and characterization of the feed horn array of the Strip instrument of the Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE) experiment. Strip is a microwave telescope, operating in the Q- and W-band, for the observation of the polarized emissions from the sky in a large fraction (about 37%) of the Northern hemisphere with subdegree angular resolution. The Strip focal plane is populated by forty-nine Q-band and six W-band corrugated horns, each feeding a cryogenically cooled polarimeter for the detection of the Stokes $Q$ and $U$ components of the polarized signal from the sky. The Q-band channel is designed to accurately monitor Galactic polarized synchrotron emission, while the combination of Q- and W-band will allow the study of atmospheric effects at the observation site, the Observatorio del Teide, in Tenerife. In this paper we focus on the development of the Strip corrugated feed horns, including design requirements, engineering and manufacturing, as well as detailed characterization and performance verification.