Receivers for the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) Mission
C. Edward Tong, Kazunori Akiyama, Paul Grimes, Mareki Honma, Janice, Houston, Michael D. Johnson, Daniel P. Marrone, Hannah Rana, Yoshinori, Uzawa

TL;DR
This paper presents a novel dual-receiver system for the BHEX mission, combining high-frequency SIS mixers and low-noise amplifiers to achieve quantum-limited sensitivity for black hole photon ring detection.
Contribution
It introduces a new receiver architecture with integrated cryogenic components and phase transfer techniques for enhanced astrophysical observations.
Findings
Achieves quantum-limited sensitivity for black hole photon ring detection
Integrates dual-frequency receivers with cryogenic cooling and phase transfer
Enhances signal-to-noise ratio for astrophysical measurements
Abstract
In this paper, we introduce the receiver architecture for the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) Mission, designed to reveal the photon ring of black holes. The primary instrument is a dual-polarization receiver operating over the 240-320 GHz frequency range, utilizing a Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixer. This Double-Side-Band (DSB) receiver has an intermediate frequency (IF) range of 4-12 GHz and operates at a bath temperature of 4.5 K, for optimal performance, which necessitates the integration of a cryocooler. Complementing the primary receiver is a secondary unit covering the 80-106 GHz spectrum, featuring a cryogenic low noise amplifier. This secondary receiver, affixed to the 20 K stage of the cryocooler, serves to augment the SIS receiver performance by employing the Frequency Phase Transfer technique to boost the signal-to-noise ratio at the correlator output.…
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Taxonomy
TopicsParticle Detector Development and Performance · Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers · Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
