Superconducting Integrated Receiver on Board TELIS

摘要

In this paper we present configuration and performance of the 480 - 650 GHz channel for the Terahertz Limb Sounder (TELIS), a three-channel balloon-borne heterodyne spectrometer for atmospheric research. This frequency channel is based on a phase-locked Superconducting Integrated Receiver (SIR). SIR is an on-chip combination of a low-noise SIS mixer with quasioptical antenna, a superconducting Flux Flow Oscillator (FFO) acting as Local Oscillator (LO) and SIS harmonic mixer (HM) for FFO phase locking. The microcircuit is designed as a quasioptical mixer. The SIR channel has been integrated into the TELIS system in the end 2006 and fully characterized during 2007/2008 in preparation for the flight campaign. In May 2008 TELIS was shipped to Brazil where it was integrated into the MIPAS-B gondola. The TELIS-MIPAS test flight took place in June 2008 in Teresina, Brazil.