We present the design, manufacturing and performance of the horn-switch system developed for the technological demonstrator of QUBIC (the Q&U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology). This system consists of 64 back-to-back dual-band (150 GHz and 220 GHz) corrugated feed-horns interposed with mechanical switches used to select desired baselines during the instrument self-calibration. We manufactured the horns in aluminum platelets milled by photo-chemical etching and mechanically tightened with screws. The switches are based on steel blades that open and close the waveguide between the back-to-back horns and are operated by miniaturized electromagnets. The measured electromagnetic performance of the feedhorns agrees with simulations. In particular we obtained a return loss around -20 dB up to 230 GHz and beam patterns in agreement with single-mode simulations down to -30 dB. The switches for this prototype were designed and built for the 150 GHz band. In this frequency range we find return and insertion losses consistent with expectations (< -25 dB and ∼-0.1 dB, respectively) and an isolation larger than 70 dB. In this paper we also show the current development status of the feedhorn-switch system for the QUBIC full instrument, based on an array of 400 horn-switch assemblies.
Cavaliere, F., Mennella, A., Zannoni, M., Battaglia, P., Battistelli, E., De Bernardis, P., et al. (2022). QUBIC VII: The feedhorn-switch system of the technological demonstrator. JOURNAL OF COSMOLOGY AND ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS, 2022(4) [10.1088/1475-7516/2022/04/040].
QUBIC VII: The feedhorn-switch system of the technological demonstrator
Zannoni M.
;Passerini A.;Banfi S.;Gervasi M.;Nati F.;
2022
Abstract
We present the design, manufacturing and performance of the horn-switch system developed for the technological demonstrator of QUBIC (the Q&U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology). This system consists of 64 back-to-back dual-band (150 GHz and 220 GHz) corrugated feed-horns interposed with mechanical switches used to select desired baselines during the instrument self-calibration. We manufactured the horns in aluminum platelets milled by photo-chemical etching and mechanically tightened with screws. The switches are based on steel blades that open and close the waveguide between the back-to-back horns and are operated by miniaturized electromagnets. The measured electromagnetic performance of the feedhorns agrees with simulations. In particular we obtained a return loss around -20 dB up to 230 GHz and beam patterns in agreement with single-mode simulations down to -30 dB. The switches for this prototype were designed and built for the 150 GHz band. In this frequency range we find return and insertion losses consistent with expectations (< -25 dB and ∼-0.1 dB, respectively) and an isolation larger than 70 dB. In this paper we also show the current development status of the feedhorn-switch system for the QUBIC full instrument, based on an array of 400 horn-switch assemblies.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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