The NAOJ ALMA Mission and Superior Expertise Heart have efficiently fabricated corrugated all-metal 3D-printed horns for the ALMA Band 1 receivers (Radio Frequency: 35–50 GHz).
Since round 2015, the NAOJ ALMA Mission and the Superior Expertise Heart have been finding out the functions of additive manufacturing (AM), which produces three-dimensional objects by depositing, becoming a member of, and solidifying supplies based mostly on 3D fashions enter to a management laptop. Since astronomical receivers usually have just one or two gadgets of every sort per instrument and so they require distinctive custom-made elements, there’s potential for efficient use of additive manufacturing.
Within the preliminary research, we chosen totally different elements for the ALMA Band 1 receiver, which have been being prototyped on the time, and consulted with the distributor. Based mostly on this preliminary research, we put in a metallic 3D printer on the Superior Expertise Heart in 2019 and began manufacturing corrugated horns to be used in ALMA.
Corrugated horns gather electromagnetic waves from celestial objects after these have been targeted by a big reflector antenna. Then, the waves collected by the horns are targeted on detectors, the subsequent elements within the sign path. For use in state-of-the-art radio astronomy receivers, it’s not solely essential to fulfill the efficiency necessities for a corrugated horn, reminiscent of antenna beam sample and frequency traits, but in addition to judge the metallic materials properties to make sure that the horn can be utilized with out issues within the setting contained in the receiver cartridge (temperatures round -250 diploma Celsius and beneath vacuum circumstances).
The perfect of those 3D-printed horns are being built-in onto the ultimate ALMA Band-1 receiver manufacturing items and examined at low temperatures of round -250 diploma Celsius on the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) in Taiwan. The efficiency verification outcomes present the horns meet ALMA specs. The fully-tested receivers will likely be put in in ALMA, changing into the primary ever cryogenic receivers that make the most of all-metal 3D-printed elements for (sub)mm-wave astronomy.
Associated analysis has been printed in Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves
A. Gonzalez et al, Metallic 3D-Printed 35–50-GHz Corrugated Horn for Cryogenic Operation, Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (2021). DOI: 10.1007/s10762-021-00825-3
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First radio-astronomy cryogenic receivers with all-metal 3D-printed RF elements (2022, October 26)
retrieved 26 October 2022
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