The Heterodyne Instrument for Far Infrared (HIFI) on ESA's Herschel Space Observatory utilizes a variety of novel RF components in its five SIS receiver channels covering 480- 1250 GHz and two HEB receiver channels covering 1410-1910 GHz. The local oscillator unit will be passively cooled while the focal plane unit is cooled by superfluid helium and cold helium vapors. HIFI employs W-band GaAs amplifiers, InP HEMT low noise IF amplifiers, fixed tuned broadband planar diode multipliers, high power W-band Isolators, and novel material systems in the SIS mixers. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is managing the development of the highest frequency (1119-1250 GHz) SIS mixers, the local oscillators for the three highest frequency receivers as well as W-band power amplifiers, high power W-band isolators, varactor diode devices for all high frequency multipliers and InP HEMT components for all the receiver channels intermediate frequency amplifiers. The NASA developed components represent a significant advancement in the available performance. This paper presents an update of the performance and the current state of development.
The Heterodyne Instrument for Far Infrared (HIFI) on ESA's Herschel Space Observatory is comprised of five SIS receiver channels covering 480-1250 GHz and two HEB receiver channels covering 1410-1910 GHz. Two fixed tuned local oscillator sub-bands are derived from a common synthesizer to provide the front-end frequency coverage for each channel. The local oscillator unti will be passively cooled while the focal plane unit is cooled by superfluid helium and cold helium vapors. HIFI employs W-band GaAs amplifiers, InP HEMT low noise IF amplifiers, fixed tuned broadband planar diode multipliers, and novel material systems in the SIS mixtures. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is managing the development of the highest frequency (1119-1250 GHz) SIS mixers, the highest frequency (1650-1910 GHz) HEB mixers, local oscillators for the three highest frequency receivers as well as W-band power amplifiers, varactor diode devices for all high frequency multipliers and InP HEMT components for all the receiver channels intermediate frequency amplifiers. The NASA developed components represent a significant advancement in the available performance. The current state of the art for each of these devices is presented along with a programmatic view of the development effort.
This paper summarizes the development of W Band amplifiers for the Local Oscillator (LO) chains for the Herschel HIFI (Heterodyne Instrument for Far Infrared) Instrument. Key amplifier development issues and their solutions are presented, which have been applied on the way to realizing stable, wide-band amplifiers capable of producing 240 mW or greater RF power output across the 71 to 106 GHz frequency range. The HIFI power amplifier design embodiment is based on an A-40 silicon-aluminum alloy package with six GaAs(Gallium Arsenide) HEMT(High Electron Mobility Transistors) MMIC(Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) amplifier chips used in each amplifier. Development challenges addressed include: MMIC chip designs which initially had a variety of oscillation or "moding" propensities (mostly out-fo-band), signal splitter and combiner development and matching across the band, matching of chip characteristics for those chips installed in the parallel power combined arms of the amplifier, power output control and leveling. The chosen design solutions are presented, including device, component and material selection for amplifier operation at cryogenic temperatures. Room temperature and cryogenic (120 Kelvin) data is also shown for the amplifier.
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