Design of a Six-band, 2.4-Octave (80--420 GHz) Hierarchically Summed Phased-Array Slot-Dipole Antenna Array for NEW-MUSIC

TL;DR

This paper presents a broadband, six-band phased-array antenna design covering 80-420 GHz for the NEW-MUSIC polarimeter, enabling multi-band trans-millimeter observations for astrophysical research.

Contribution

It introduces a hierarchical phased-array antenna with integrated filters covering 2.4 octaves, tailored for the first six-band trans-millimeter wave polarimeter, NEW-MUSIC.

Findings

Achieved broadband coverage from 80 GHz to 420 GHz.

Designed superconducting filter banks for hierarchical signal summing.

Enabled multi-band observations for astrophysical applications.

Abstract

The Next-generation Extended Wavelength Multi-band Sub/millimeter Inductance Camera (NEW-MUSIC), located on the Leighton Chajnantor Telescope (LCT), will be the first six-band trans-millimeter wave polarimeter. This paper proposes a broadband, hierarchical phased-array antenna with integrated band-defining filters necessary to realize NEW-MUSIC. It covers a spectral bandwidth of 2.4 octaves from 80~GHz to 420~GHz, a frequency range ideal for studying trans-millimeter emission from a range of time-domain sources, using the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effects to study hot plasmas in galaxy clusters and galaxies, and to observe dusty sources, from star-forming regions in our galaxy to high-redshift dusty, star-forming galaxies. To achieve these goals, three groups of superconducting lumped-element on-chip low-pass/band-pass filter-banks were designed to hierarchically sum the superconducting, broadband, non-resonant, slot-dipole antenna arrays and band-pass filter the trans-mm light before outputting it on microstripline to detectors (KIDs in the case of NEW-MUSIC).