The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Band 1 receiver covers the frequency band between 35-50 GHz. The project achieved the successful delivery of 73 Band 1 receiver units to ALMA telescope site and ready for cycle 10 observation. This paper delves into the implementation of Project management methodologies applied during the both receiver development and production phases. Furthermore, the paper presents the lessons learned and challenges faced, and offer for the future endeavors in applying the project management in the scientific research projects.
The idea of ALMA Band-4+5 receivers are proposed for the upgrade after 2030. The new receiver will cover the RF frequency of the original Band-4 and Band-5 with continuous frequency tuning over 125 –211 GHz with dual polarizations, dual sidebands capability. The instantaneous intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth is up to 16 GHz per sideband and per polarization. Both the SIS-based receiver and HEMT-based receiver schemes are considered. For the SIS receiver scheme, the niobium-based SIS junctions will be fabricated to form mixer chips, and integrated into the mixer blocks with broadband waveguide 3-dB quadrature hybrid couplers with LO couplers, cryogenic IF low-noise amplifiers, and 2-20 GHz coaxial 3-dB quadrature hybrid couplers to form sideband separating down-converters. The inputs of the sideband separating down-converters are fed by the ellipsoidal mirror pairs, corrugated feedhorn and the orthomode transducer. For the HEMT-based receiver scheme, using the same optics configuration as the SIS-based receiver, the cryogenic InP HEMT low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) chains cover 125 – 211 GHz operated in 15-K ambient temperature will be the key components of the cold cartridge assembly (CCA). For the warm cartridge assembly, a pair of sideband-separating diode or resistive transistor mixers will provide four-channel 16-GHz IF instantaneous bandwidth. To avoid the possible interference between LO and IF signals, considering the possible 16 GHz IF bandwidth over 4 – 20 GHz, the LO fundamental frequency will be chosen in 24 - 32 GHz, followed by an active frequency tripler to form the phase-lock loop with 72 – 96 GHz frequency tuning range. The key components with 51.2% relative bandwidth to be developed in-house are Nb SIS mixers, RF InP HEMT LNAs, 3-dB waveguide hybrid couplers, orthomode transducers, corrugated horn antenna, and optics mirror pairs.
KEYWORDS: Receivers, Optical amplifiers, Radio astronomy, Antennas, Astronomy, Observatories, Cryogenics, Simulation of CCA and DLA aggregates, Roads, Galactic astronomy
The Atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (ALMA) band-1 receiver covers the frequency band between 35-50 GHz. An extension of up to 52 GHz is on a best-effort basis. Covering the longest wavelengths visible with ALMA, this receiver is enabling studies of dust grain evolution in proto-planetary systems probing dust grain sizes close to 1 cm, and with multiple red-shifted molecular lines it will open up a new window in the high-redshift universe. The band-1 project has recently achieved first light and with this passed a major project milestone. We present the challenges, from initial development to prototype, to establishing the infrastructure, integration, and evaluation of 73 production receiver units, and to the final tasks to complete the project. We conclude with the initial performance and characterization of the first band-1 receivers installed on ALMA.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Band 1 receiver covers the frequency range of 35-50 GHz. An extension of up to 52 GHz is on a best-effort basis. A total of 73 units have to be built in two phases: 8 preproduction and then 65 production units. This paper reports on the assembly, testing, and performance of the preproduction Band 1 receiver. The infrastructure, integration, and evaluation of the fully-assembled Band 1 receiver system will be covered. Finally, a discussion of the technical and managerial challenges encountered for this large number of receivers will be presented.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array(ALMA) Band 1 receiver covers the 35-50 GHz frequency band. Development of prototype receivers, including the key components and subsystems has been completed and two sets of prototype receivers were fully tested. We will provide an overview of the ALMA Band 1 science goals, and its requirements and design for use on the ALMA. The receiver development status will also be discussed and the infrastructure, integration, evaluation of fully-assembled band 1 receiver system will be covered. Finally, a discussion of the technical and management challenges encountered will be presented.
The ALMA Band-1 receiver front-end prototype cold and warm cartridge assemblies, including the system and key
components for ALMA Band-1 receivers have been developed and two sets of prototype cartridge were fully tested. The
measured aperture efficiency for the cold receiver is above the 80% specification except for a few frequency points.
Based on the cryogenically cooled broadband low-noise amplifiers provided by NRAO, the receiver noise temperature
can be as low as 15 – 32K for pol-0 and 17 – 30K for pol-1. Other key testing items are also measured. The receiver
beam pattern is measured, the results is well fit to the simulation and design. The pointing error extracted from the
measured beam pattern indicates the error is 0.1 degree along azimuth and 0.15 degree along elevation, which is well fit
to the specification (smaller than 0.4 degree). The equivalent hot load temperature for 5% gain compression is 492 -
4583K, which well fit to the specification of 5% with 373K input thermal load. The image band suppression is higher
than 30 dB typically and the worst case is higher than 20 dB for 34GHz RF signal and 38GHz LO signal, which is all
higher than 7 dB required specification. The cross talk between orthogonal polarization is smaller than -85 dB based on
present prototype LO. The amplitude stability is below 2.0 x 10-7 , which is fit to the specification of 4.0 x 10-7 for
timescales in the range of 0.05 s ≤ T ≤ 100 s. The signal path phase stability measured is smaller than 5 fs, which is
smaller than 22 fs for Long term (delay drift) 20 s ≤ T < 300 sec. The IF output phase variation is smaller than 3.5° rms
typically, and the specification is less than 4.5° rms. The measured IF output power level is -28 to -30.5 dBm with 300K
input load. The measured IF output power flatness is less than 5.6 dB for 2GHz window, and 1.3dB for 31MHz window.
The first batch of prototype cartridges will be installed on site for further commissioning on July of 2017.
ALMA covering 35-950 GHz is the largest existing telescope array in the world. Among the 10 receiver bands, Band-1,
which covers 35-50 GHz, is the lowest. Due to its small dimension and its time-variant frequency-dependent gain
characteristics, current solar filter located above the cryostat cannot be applied to Band-1 for solar observation. Here we
thus adopt new strategies to fulfill the goals. Thanks to the flexible dc biasing scheme of the HEMT-based amplifier in
Band-1 front-end, bias adjustment of the cryogenic low noise amplifier is investigated to accomplish solar observation
without using solar filter. Large power handling range can be achieved by the de-tuning bias technique with little
degradation in system performance.
KEYWORDS: Receivers, Oscillators, Waveguides, Prototyping, Amplifiers, Optical amplifiers, Antennas, Optical isolators, Field effect transistors, Simulation of CCA and DLA aggregates
The prototype cartridges for ALMA Band-1 receivers have been developed, based on the key components developed in ALMA Band-1 consortium laboratories. The prototype cartridges for each receiver consist of two parts, cold cartridge assembly and warm cartridge assembly. The cold cartridge assembly (CCA) consists of horn antenna, orthomode transducer and a pair of 35-52 GHz cold low-noise amplifiers, the amplified signals of both polarizations are transmitted to warm cartridge assembly by long waveguide sections. In warm cartridge assembly (WCA), two major modules incorporated, down-converter assembly including warm low-noise amplifier, high-pass filter, mixer and 4-12 GHz IF amplifier, and local oscillator based on a 31-40 GHz YIG-tunes oscillator. The frequency range is based on the upper sideband scheme. Based on the measured performance of the key components, the expected noise performance of the receiver will be 26-33K.
A series of 31.3-45.0GHz millimeter-wave components including 31.3-45GHz low-noise amplifiers, band-pass and highpass
filters, a cascode PHEMT mixer, and 4-12GHz IF amplifiers are developed in Taiwan. The local oscillator for band-
1 is also developed, including the phase-locked GaAs HBT MMIC voltage-controlled oscillator cascaded by a buffer
amplifier and a baseline design based on a YIG-tunes oscillator with active frequency doubler. The measured RMS jitter
of the HBT VCO LO is around 51 fs and the version of YIG is less than 40fs over 1K to 1MHz frequency offset.
A prototype Q-band millimeter-wave heterodyne receiver based on monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) chips
is designed and tested. The MMIC chips, including two three-stage 31.3-45GHz low-noise amplifier (LNA), a diode
balanced mixer and a 4-12GHz IF amplifier, are fabricated by a 0.15-um Gallium-Arsenide (GaAs) metamorphic
high-electron mobility transistor (MHEMT) foundry service. The MMIC chips are measured by probe in the gain stage.
The three-stage 31.3-45GHz LNA MMIC exhibits 31-35dB gain and 2.8-3.5dB noise figure under room temperature
environment. The balanced diode mixer with 31.3-45.0GHz RF frequency range and 27.3-33GHz LO frequency range
shows 10-13dB conversion loss under 10-dBm LO pumping over 4-12GHz IF frequency range. The LO power of the
mixer is provided by a phase-locked GaAs hetero-junction bipolar transistor (HBT) MMIC voltage-controlled oscillator
cascaded by a buffer amplifier. The packaged modules of the individual MHEMT MMIC receiver components are
designed for testing under 15-20K cryogenic operating temperature to ensure the low-noise performance. A compact
multi-chip receiver module design concept will be presented.
Using the array of seven 0.6m antennas in Hawaii, we have conducted short observations on several galaxy clusters through
the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect at 3mm wavelength in 2007. The observations were done with a resolution of 6', and we
have chosen the low redshift (z=0.09-0.32) massive clusters to optimize detection. Major contamination to the data comes
from instrumental offset and ground pickup. We will demonstrate the results based on a simple on source - off source
switching observing scheme. In addition, the performance of a wideband analog 4-lag correlator was also investigated.
AMiBA, as a dual-polarization 86-102 GHz interferometer array, is designed to measure the power spectrum of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, and to detect the high-redshift clusters of galaxies via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE). The operation of AMiBA is about to begin after installation of the first two receivers and correlators onto the 6-meter diameter platform by the end of 2005. The initial setup of the array will consist of 7 antennas with 60 cm diameter reflectors in a hexagonal configuration, aiming at multipoles l ~ 3000. Signals from receivers are cross-correlated in analog lag correlators. The initial operation will focus on characterizing the systematics by observing various known objects on the sky. The expansion to 13 elements with larger dishes will commence once the 7-element array testing is completed.
This is to report on our development for a dual-polarization receiver to detect the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in 85 to 105 GHz band. The receiver is based on a MMIC, HEMT-based LNA developed in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A W-band, orthomode transducer (OMT) is used for polarization separation. Most of the RF front-end is located in cryogenics environment at 20K. We have developed a MMIC sub-harmonically pumped diode mixer, operating at 42 GHz, for signal down-conversion. The entire base-band, 2 to 18 GHz, is correlated in a lag-correlator system. The receiver design details and the lab test results will be described in this report.
This is to report on our development for a full-polarization receiver to detect comic microwave background in 85 to 105 GHz band. Two such receivers have been built and tested, and currently undergoing site-testing on Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Each receiver is a very sensitive coherent detector to operate in 85-105 GHz with full polarization capability. Most of the receiver front-end components, including feed-horn, ortho-mode transducer, and low-noise amplifiers, are located in a cryogenic environment. We have designed a MMIC sub-harmonic pumped mixer, operating at 42 GHz, for signal down-conversion. In order to detect faint polarization signals in microwave background, a wide base-band, 2 to 18 GHz, is specified in the receiver design, and the entire base-band will be correlated. The receiver design details and the lab test results will be described in this report.
This is to report on our progress and current status of the Sub-Millimeter Array (SMA) project in Taiwan. In particular, we will describe the development of the SMA receiver systems. The SMA is the first major instrumentation project in the Taiwanese astronomical research community. The primary design and development of the SMA receiver system has been carried out in the receiver laboratory at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). We have undertaken the system assembly, integration and testing, and the task to fabricate the superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers used for our SMA receivers. The system will be initially equipped with two SIS receiver modules to cover 176 - 256 GHz and 250 - 350 GHz bands, followed with a third band of 600 - 720 GHz. The receiver system will be installed in the antenna in the mid-2000. The major milestone for this project is to ship the antennas to Mauna Kea, Hawaii to join the rest of the SMA for testing interferometric observation before the end of the year 2000.
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