QUBIC VII: The feedhorn-switch system of the technological demonstrator

F. Cavaliere , A. Mennella , M. Zannoni , P. Battaglia , E.S. Battistelli , P. de Bernardis , D. Burke , G. d'Alessandro , M. de Petris , C. Franceschet , L. Grandsire (1) , J.-Ch. Hamilton (1) , B. Maffei (2) , E. Manzan , S. Marnieros (3) , S. Masi , C. O'Sullivan , A. Passerini , F. Pezzotta , M. Piat (1) , A. Tartari , S.A. Torchinsky (1, 4) , D. Viganò , F. Voisin (1) , P. Ade , J.G. Alberro , A. Almela , G. Amico , L.H. Arnaldi , D. Auguste (3) , J. Aumont (5) , S. Azzoni , S. Banfi , A. Baù , B. Bélier (6) , D. Bennett , L. Bergé (3) , J.-Ph. Bernard (5) , M. Bersanelli , M.-A. Bigot-Sazy (1) , J. Bonaparte , J. Bonis (3) , E. Bunn , D. Buzi , P. Chanial (1) , C. Chapron (1) , R. Charlassier (1) , A.C. Cobos Cerutti , F. Columbro , A. Coppolecchia , G. de Gasperis , M. de Leo , S. Dheilly (1) , C. Duca , L. Dumoulin (3) , A. Etchegoyen , A. Fasciszewski , L.P. Ferreyro , D. Fracchia , M.M. Gamboa Lerena , K.M. Ganga (1) , B. García , M.E. García Redondo , M. Gaspard (3) , D. Gayer , M. Gervasi , M. Giard (5) , V. Gilles , Y. Giraud-Heraud (1) , M. Gómez Berisso , M. González , M. Gradziel , M.R. Hampel , D. Harari , S. Henrot-Versillé (3) , F. Incardona , E. Jules (3) , J. Kaplan (1) , C. Kristukat , L. Lamagna , S. Loucatos (1, 7) , T. Louis (3) , W. Marty (5) , A. Mattei , A. May , M. Mcculloch , L. Mele , D. Melo , L. Montier (5) , L. Mousset (1) , L.M. Mundo , J.A. Murphy , J.D. Murphy , F. Nati , E. Olivieri (3) , C. Oriol (3) , E. Pagana , A. Paiella , F. Pajot (5) , H. Pastoriza , A. Pelosi , C. Perbost (1) , M. Perciballi , F. Piacentini , L. Piccirillo , G. Pisano , M. Platino , G. Polenta , D. Prêle (1) , R. Puddu , D. Rambaud (5) , E. Rasztocky , P. Ringegni , G.E. Romero , J.M. Salum , A. Schillaci , C.G. Scóccola , S. Scully , S. Spinelli , G. Stankowiak (1) , M. Stolpovskiy (1) , A.D. Supanitsky , J.-P. Thermeau (1) , P. Timbie , M. Tomasi , C. Tucker , G. Tucker , N. Vittorio , F. Wicek (3) , M. Wright , A. Zullo

1 APC (UMR_7164) - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
2 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale
3 IJCLab - Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie
4 OP - Observatoire de Paris - Site de Paris
5 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
6 C2N - Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies [Orsay]
7 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers

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.

Mots clés: CMBR detectors; CMBR experiments; CMBR polarisation; gravitational waves and CMBR polarization

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]

F. Cavaliere, A. Mennella, M. Zannoni, P. Battaglia, E.S. Battistelli, et al.. QUBIC VII: The feedhorn-switch system of the technological demonstrator. JCAP, 2022, 04 (04), pp.040. ⟨10.1088/1475-7516/2022/04/040⟩. ⟨hal-02946234⟩