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.
AMiBA consists of a 90 GHz interferometric array telescope with dishes ranging in size from 0.3 to 2.4 meter in diameter, mounted on a 6-meter fully steerable platform. The dishes are attached to the receivers, which are mounted on a platform controlled by a six degree of freedom hexapod mount. The hexapod mount is a parallel connection manipulator also called Stewart Platform. The basic reference for this mechanism is a paper by Stewart. The Stewart Platform is a unique kinematically constrained work platform. It can be manipulated through the six degrees of freedom. The hexapod also provides better accuracy, rigidity, load to weight ratio and load distribution than a serial manipulator or traditional manipulator. The advantages of the hexapod shows that it is a great choice for the AMiBA project. Vertex Antennentechnik GmbH fabricates the hexapod. Testing has started in Germany. The telescope will be delivered in the summer of 2004. The 6m in diameter hexagonal platform is made of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) and consists of seven pieces of three different unique types. The platform can be disassembled and fits in a container for transportation. The mounting plane flatness is an important issue for the platform assembly. The deflection angle of the mounting plane relative to any other mounting position must be less than 20 arcsec. Meanwhile, the platform must endure a loading of 3 tons. The platform has been built by Composite Mirror Applications, Inc. (CMA) in Tucson, and mounted on the Hexapod in Germany. This report describes the design and testing of platform and mount for the AMiBA telescope.
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