Engineering topics
Hoppe, Daniel
Publications and source records attributed to Hoppe, Daniel.
X- to Ka- Band Cryogenic LNA Module for Very Long Baseline Interferometry
We report a new result of a packaged low noise amplifier (LNA) module with wide bandwidth of 5 to 35 GHz with low noise temperature performance of 10 - 18 K, while operated at 10 K ambient. The LNA used 3-stages of sub-50 nm gate length, 100% indium channel content indium phosphide (InP) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). Wideband cryogenic LNAs are important for future radio astronomy observatories. To our knowledge these results represent the lowest noise achieved in a wideband amplifier from 5-35 GHz.
Deep Space Optical Communications
The future demand for enhanced telecommunication capacity required to support human and robotic exploration from deep-space has motivated the advancement of free-space laser communication technologies for the past few decades. Steady advances in these technologies, validated through space-to-ground demonstrations, have resulted in incremental advances with the deep-space optical communications (DSOC) technology demonstration being one of the next milestones on NASA’s roadmap. NASA’s Psyche Mission to launch early next decade plans to host a DSOC flight laser transceiver for link demonstrations extending from 0.1 to farther than 2 astronomical units (AU). The capabilities validated though this demonstration, we expect, could spur the use of optical communications infrastructure around Mars in the next few decades. In this paper we summarize ongoing activities underway at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in preparation for the DSOC technology demonstration and go on to present discussions on the drivers for developing a robust deep space laser communications operational capability.
Multi-Step Ka/Ka Dichroic Plate with Rounded Corners for NASA's 34m Beam Waveguide Antenna
A multi-step Ka/Ka dichroic plate Frequency Selective Surface (FSS structure) is designed, manufactured and tested for use in NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) 34m Beam Waveguide (BWG) antennas. The proposed design allows ease of manufacturing and ability to handle the increased transmit power (reflected off the FSS) of the DSN BWG antennas from 20kW to 100 kW. The dichroic is designed using HFSS and results agree well with measured data considering the manufacturing tolerances that could be achieved on the dichroic.
Microwave Power Combiners for Signals of Arbitrary Amplitude
Schemes for combining power from coherent microwave sources of arbitrary (unequal or equal) amplitude have been proposed. Most prior microwave-power-combining schemes are limited to sources of equal amplitude. The basic principle of the schemes now proposed is to use quasi-optical components to manipulate the polarizations and phases of two arbitrary-amplitude input signals in such a way as to combine them into one output signal having a specified, fixed polarization. To combine power from more than two sources, one could use multiple powercombining stages based on this principle, feeding the outputs of lower-power stages as inputs to higher-power stages. Quasi-optical components suitable for implementing these schemes include grids of parallel wires, vane polarizers, and a variety of waveguide structures. For the sake of brevity, the remainder of this article illustrates the basic principle by focusing on one scheme in which a wire grid and two vane polarizers would be used. Wire grids are the key quasi-optical elements in many prior equal-power combiners. In somewhat oversimplified terms, a wire grid reflects an incident beam having an electric field parallel to the wires and passes an incident beam having an electric field perpendicular to the wires. In a typical prior equal-power combining scheme, one provides for two properly phased, equal-amplitude signals having mutually perpendicular linear polarizations to impinge from two mutually perpendicular directions on a wire grid in a plane oriented at an angle of 45 with respect to both beam axes. The wires in the grid are oriented to pass one of the incident beams straight through onto the output path and to reflect the other incident beam onto the output path along with the first-mentioned beam.
24-Way Radial Power Combiner/Divider for 31 to 36 GHz
The figure shows a prototype radial power-combining waveguide structure, capable of operation at frequencies from 31 to 36 GHz, that features an unusually large number (N = 24) of combining (input) ports. The combination of wide-band operation and large N is achieved by incorporating several enhancements over a basic radial power-combiner design. In addition, the structure can be operated as a power divider by reversing the roles of the input and output ports. In this structure, full-height waveguides at the combining ports are matched in impedance to reduced-height radial waveguides inside the combiner base. This match is effected by impedance-transforming stepped waveguide sections. This matching scheme is essential to achievement of large N because N is limited by the height of the waveguides in the base. Power is coupled from the 24 reduced- height radial waveguides into the TE01 mode of a circular waveguide in the base with the help of a matching post at the bottom of the base. ( TE signifies transverse electric, the first subscript is the azimuthal mode number, and the second subscript is the radial mode number.) More specifically, the matching post matches the reflections from the walls of the 24 reduced-height waveguides and enables the base design to exceed the bandwidth requirement. After propagating along the circular waveguide, the combined power is coupled, via a mode transducer, to a rectangular waveguide output port. The mode transducer is divided into three sections, each sized and shaped as part of an overall design to satisfy the mode-conversion and output-coupling requirements while enabling the circular waveguide to be wide enough for combining the 24 inputs over the frequency range of 31 to 36 GHz. During the design process, it was found that two different rectangular waveguide outputs could be accommodated through modification of only the first section of the mode converter, thereby enabling operation in multiple frequency ranges.
Analysis of the Optical Design for the SAFIR Telescope
SAFIR, the Single Aperture Far Infra Red Observatory, is a very powerful space mission that will achieve background-limited sensitivity in the far infrared-submillimeter spectral region. Many processes of enormous interest to astronomers can best be studied in this wavelength range, but require the demanding combination of high sensitivity, good angular resolution, and spectroscopic capability. SAFIR is a 10m class telescope to offering good angular resolution, cooled to below 5 K in order to achieve background-limited sensitivity, and equipped with a complement of large-format cameras and broadband spectrometers. Successful operation of such a facility is critically dependent on achieving the level of sensitivity expected, but this is rendered difficult by potential pickup from unwanted sources of radiation. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the emission from the optical system itself is minimal due to its low temperature, thus emphasizing the importance of minimizing pickup from unwanted astronomical sources of radiation, including the emission from dust in our solar system (analogous to the zodiacal light, hence 'zodi'), and the emission from warm dust in the Milky Way (Galactic 'cirrus').
Front-Side Microstrip Line Feeding a Raised Antenna Patch
An improved design concept for a printed-circuit patch antenna and the transmission line that feeds the patch calls for (1) a microstrip transmission line on the front (radiative) side of a printed-circuit board based on a thin, high-permittivity dielectric substrate; (2) using the conductor covering the back side of the circuit board as a common ground plane for both the microstrip line and the antenna patch; (3) supporting the antenna patch in front of the circuit board on a much thicker, lower-permittivity dielectric spacer layer; and (4) connecting the microstrip transmission line to the patch by use of a thin wire or narrow ribbon that extends through the thickness of the spacer and is oriented perpendicularly to the circuit-board plane. The thickness of the substrate is typically chosen so that a microstrip transmission line of practical width has an impedance between 50 and 100 ohms. The advantages of this design concept are best understood in the context of the disadvantages of prior design concepts, as explained
Dual-Band Feed for a Microwave Reflector Antenna
A waveguide feed has been designed to provide specified illumination patterns for a dual-reflector antenna in two wavelength bands: 8 to 9 GHz and 30 to 40 GHz. The feed (see figure) has a coaxial configuration: A wider circular tube surrounds a narrower circular tube that serves as a waveguide for the signals in the 30-to-40-GHz band. The annular space between the narrower and the wider tube serves as a coaxial waveguide for the signals in the 8-to-9-GHz band. The nominal design frequencies of the outer and inner waveguides are 8.45 and 32 GHz, respectively. Each of the two waveguides is terminated in a component that is sized and shaped to help focus the radiation in its respective frequency band into the specified illumination pattern. For the outer waveguide, the beam-shaping termination is a corrugated horn; for the inner waveguide, the beam-shaping termination is a dielectric rod insert.
High-Aperture-Efficiency Horn Antenna
A horn antenna (see Figure 1) has been developed to satisfy requirements specific to its use as an essential component of a high-efficiency Ka-band amplifier: The combination of the horn antenna and an associated microstrip-patch antenna array is required to function as a spatial power divider that feeds 25 monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) power amplifiers. The foregoing requirement translates to, among other things, a further requirement that the horn produce a uniform, vertically polarized electromagnetic field in its patches identically so that the MMICs can operate at maximum efficiency. The horn is fed from a square waveguide of 5.9436-mm-square cross section via a transition piece. The horn features cosine-tapered, dielectric-filled longitudinal corrugations in its vertical walls to create a hard boundary condition: This aspect of the horn design causes the field in the horn aperture to be substantially vertically polarized and to be nearly uniform in amplitude and phase. As used here, cosine-tapered signifies that the depth of the corrugations is a cosine function of distance along the horn. Preliminary results of finite-element simulations of performance have shown that by virtue of the cosine taper the impedance response of this horn can be expected to be better than has been achieved previously in a similar horn having linearly tapered dielectric- filled longitudinal corrugations. It is possible to create a hard boundary condition by use of a single dielectric-filled corrugation in each affected wall, but better results can be obtained with more corrugations. Simulations were performed for a one- and a three-corrugation cosine-taper design. For comparison, a simulation was also performed for a linear- taper design (see Figure 2). The three-corrugation design was chosen to minimize the cost of fabrication while still affording acceptably high performance. Future designs using more corrugations per wavelength are expected to provide better field responses and, hence, greater aperture efficiencies.
Integrated Pointing and Signal Detector for Optical Receiver
A design concept for the receiver portion of a proposed free-space optical-communication terminal calls for integration of its communication and pointing detectors. As explained below, this would entail a departure from prior designs, in which pointing and communication detectors have been separate. As used here, communication detector denotes a single high-speed photodetector used for reception of a laser beam that has been modulated to convey information, while pointing detector denotes an array of photodetectors (typically, a quad-cell detector or a charge-coupled device) used in sensing the pointing error (the error in the aim of a receiver telescope, relative to the laser-beam axis). The pointing detector of this or any free-space optical-communication receiver is necessary for proper acquisition and tracking of the received laser beam. The suitably processed output of the pointing detector is fed back to a fine-steering mirror to reduce any pointing error and thereby maintain optimum reception. Heretofore, it has been common practice to pass the incoming laser beam through a beam splitter that sends about 10 percent of the beam power to a pointing detector and the rest to a separate communication detector, as illustrated in the upper part of the figure. One disadvantage of this is that because only 10 percent of the received signal power is available for use by the pointing detector, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the pointing detector is lower than it otherwise would be. The performance of the pointing detector is correspondingly limited. Another disadvantage is that the alignment between the communication and pointing detectors is critical and must be ensured by means of a calibration procedure. According to the proposal, there would be no beam splitter. The communication and pointing detectors would be positioned coaxially in the same focal plane, as shown in the lower part of the figure: the communication detector would occupy the central part of the focal plane, while the pointing detector would occupy the surrounding area. This arrangement would inherently ensure the proper alignment of the detectors with each other.
Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph overview of technology development & system design
Astronomers have discovered over 150 planets orbiting other stars. NASA mission; Find and characterize terrestrial (or rocky) exo-planets that might harbor life (like Earth)liquid water on the planet (habitable zone). An atmosphere that indicates the presence of life water, oxygen, ozone, carbon dioxide, chlorophyll, and methane. Two missions under development: A coronagraph and an interferometer.
Sub-nanometer Level Model Validation of the SIM Interferometer
The Space Interferometer Mission (SIM) flight instrument will not undergo a full performance, end-to-end system test on the ground due to a number of constraints. Thus, analysis and physics-based models will play a significant role in providing confidence that SIM will meet its science goals on orbit. The various models themselves are validated against the experimental results obtained from the MicroArcsecond Metrology (MAM) testbed adn the Diffraction testbed (DTB). The metric for validation is provided by the SIM astrometric error budget.
Cryocooler and front-end integration peer review
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DSN array microwave subsystem technical peer review
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