Sub-Orbital Flight Demonstration of a 183/540&#x2013;600 GHz Hybrid CMOS-InP and CMOS-Schottky-MEMS Limb-Sounder

Adrian Tang; Maria Alonso Del Pino; Yanghyo Kim; Yan Zhang; Theodore Reck; Cecile Jung-Kubiak; Deacon Nemchick; Logan Dyer; Gabriel Virbila; Goutam Chattopadhyay; Mau-Chung Frank Chang

doi:10.1109/JMW.2021.3060622

IEEE Journal of Microwaves (Jan 2021)

Sub-Orbital Flight Demonstration of a 183/540–600 GHz Hybrid CMOS-InP and CMOS-Schottky-MEMS Limb-Sounder

Adrian Tang,
Maria Alonso Del Pino,
Yanghyo Kim,
Yan Zhang,
Theodore Reck,
Cecile Jung-Kubiak,
Deacon Nemchick,
Logan Dyer,
Gabriel Virbila,
Goutam Chattopadhyay,
Mau-Chung Frank Chang

Affiliations

Adrian Tang: ORCiD; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
Maria Alonso Del Pino: TU Delft, Delft, CD, The Netherlands
Yanghyo Kim: ORCiD; Steven's Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA
Yan Zhang: University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Theodore Reck: ORCiD; Virginia Diodes Inc, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Cecile Jung-Kubiak: ORCiD; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
Deacon Nemchick: ORCiD; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
Logan Dyer: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
Gabriel Virbila: University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Goutam Chattopadhyay: ORCiD; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
Mau-Chung Frank Chang: ORCiD; University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JMW.2021.3060622
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 1, no. 2
pp. 560 – 573

Abstract

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This paper presents an overview of a sub-orbital flight demonstration with a 183 GHz and 540–600 GHz limb-sounding instrument aboard a stratospheric ballooncraft. The 183 GHz band provides soundings of stratospheric H2O and is implemented with a hybrid CMOS-InP receiver architecture which provides excellent sensitivity while remaining compact (162 g) and offering an extremely low DC power consumption (0.62 W). The 540–600 GHz channel sounds stratospheric O3 and uses a combination of a CMOS local oscillator, GaAs Schottky mixer and micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) RF switch for calibration, again offering competitive form factor (1.4 Kg) and low DC power consumption (6.6 W) compared to prior instruments. The instrument was flown on the NASA Reck-Tang Limb-sounding Experiment (ReckTangLE) ballooncraft and performed atmospheric soundings across New Mexico and Northwestern Texas on Oct. 17 2019.

Published in IEEE Journal of Microwaves

ISSN: 2692-8388 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering: Telecommunication; Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering: Electric apparatus and materials. Electric circuits. Electric networks
Website: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=9171629

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