Development of a Two-Pixel Integrated Heterodyne Schottky Diode Receiver at 183GHz

This paper describes the design of a two-pixel Schottky diode-based heterodyne receiver working at 183GHz. The receiver is the integration of two 183GHz subharmonic mixers and a frequency tripler into the same mechanical block. A Y junction divider is used to split the power produced by the frequency multiplier. The chips have been fabricated using the standard BES process of United Monolithic Semiconductors (UMS) in the frame of a contract with the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The integrated two-pixel receiver is expected to work in the band 170-195 GHz with a double side band (DSB) conversion gain greater than -5.5dB when pumped with less than 50mW of input power at 30GHz. A minimum DSB conversion gain of -4.5dB at 183 GHz is expected. I. INTRODUCTION In planetary and atmospheric sciences large arrays of millimeter wave heterodyne Schottky diode-based receivers can offer higher mapping speed and mapping consistency while avoiding the use of cryogenic receivers. To reduce the size, the weight and the power consumption of a multi-pixel receiver it is necessary to optimize the interface between the mixers and the local oscillator unit. One solution consists in integrating in the same mechanical block a frequency multiplier and one or several mixers to create a compact sub- array. II. TWO-PIXEL INTEGRATED RECEIVER AT 183GHZ A novel approach to design multi-pixel heterodyne receiver is described below. Based on this idea, we could extend the number of beams after changing the LO distribution network. This concept could be applied to higher frequencies.