Optimising receivers for ground-based millimetre wave radiotelescopes

Abstract

We present a study of requirements on the sensitivity of millimetre and submillimetre wave receivers for application in radioastronomy. The study is based on the experience of operation of the SIS receivers at the radiotelescopes of the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) and considers also the conditions of operation at future radio-astronomical instruments such as Large Southern Array (LSA), Millimetre Array (MMA) and Large Millimetre and Submillimetre Array (LMSA). As a compromise between receiver development efforts and system performance, we introduce the criterion of an ‘optimm’ receiver noise.