The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) radio interferometer has some different types of antennas which have a variation of gain and leakages across the primary beam of an individual antenna. We have been developing an artificial calibration source which is used for compensation of individual difference of antennas. In a high-frequency antenna, using astronomical sources to do calibration measurement would be extremely time consuming, whereas with the artificial calibration source becomes a realistic possibility. Photonic techniques are considered to be superior to conventional techniques based on electronic devices in terms of wide bandwidth and high-frequency signals. Conversion from an optical signal to a millimeter/sub-millimeter wave signal is done by a photo-mixer.

Date Published: 19 July 2016
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 9914, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII, 99142O (19 July 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2232192

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9914:
Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII
Wayne S. Holland; Jonas Zmuidzinas, Editor(s)