[Pafgbt] Phased Array Coordination meeting

Karl Warnick warnick at ee.byu.edu
Fri Apr 19 17:43:42 EDT 2013


Anish,

In your attachment, I couldn't figure out what noise figure you were 
calculating for the BYU receiver. Can you tell me what your measured 
noise figure for the BYU receiver is?

Karl

On 4/11/2013 5:46 AM, Anish Roshi wrote:
>
> Hi Brian,
>
> The discussion Rick has raised in the mail is based on some 
> measurements I made early April. Attached is a summary of these 
> measurements. We see a higher NF for the BYU receiver. Is this 
> consistent with your earlier measurements ? A possibility Rick raised 
> is that the LO power level may be low and so the mixer conversion loss 
> may be high. Is it possible ?
>
> Anish
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 2:49 PM, Rick Fisher <rfisher at nrao.edu 
> <mailto:rfisher at nrao.edu>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Anish,
>
>     I think it would be good to put this discussion on 'pafgbt' so
>     here goes.
>
>     You are probably right that there's not much margin for adding
>     attenuation at the output of the Dewar.  It depends on the noise
>     figure of the amplifiers at the input of the fiber link package
>     or, more accurately, the effective noise figure of the fiber link
>     input.  This will be good to know, but for now we can probably
>     assume that Roger designed the fiber link with just low enough
>     noise figure to work with the Dewar design as he knew it.  This
>     would be good to verify, however, once the uncertainty of the cold
>     LNA integrity is resolved.
>
>     Keep in mind that terminating the fiber link input adds 300K of
>     noise to its input.  Hence, if the noise figure of the fiber link
>     input amplifiers is better than 3 dB, you're more than doubling
>     its noise power with the termination.
>
>
>     Rick
>
>     On Tue, 9 Apr 2013, Anish Roshi wrote:
>
>
>         Hi Rick, Bob,
>
>         It looks like the disagreement is in the measured noise figure
>         and estimate
>         noise figure of BYU receiver.  May be we can repeat the noise
>         figure
>         measurement of BYU receiver. Bob, would you mind measuring the
>         output noise
>         spectrum of BYU receiver after terminating its input for
>         couple of boards
>         with a spectrum analyzer.
>
>
>         Regarding putting the attenuator between A and B -- won't it
>         reduce the
>         noise margin of cold sky signal ? With the current gain, the
>         cold sky signal
>         is about 20 dB above the noise level when terminated.
>
>         -----------------------------------
>
>         I checked the noise due to the first stage op-amp LMH6639. The
>         voltage noise
>         from the spec is 16 nV/sqrt(Hz). The source impedance I have
>         taken as 50
>         Ohms (ie the mixed output impedance) and so I neglected the
>         noise due to the
>         current source. The noise power is -143 dBm/Hz and reference
>         at the input
>         with 23 dB gain ahead of op-amp is -163 dBm/Hz -- comparable
>         to the noise
>         due to the first stage !! Does this make sense ?
>
>         Anish
>
>
>         On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 4:09 PM, Rick Fisher <rfisher at nrao.edu
>         <mailto:rfisher at nrao.edu>> wrote:
>               Hi Anish,
>
>               >From your short write up, the noise temperature at the
>         output
>               of the fiber link (point C) with the link input (B)
>         terminated
>               is about 3e6 Kelvin. This says that either the input noise
>               figure of the fiber link is much higher than 300 K or
>         the net RF
>               gain of the link is nearly 40 dB, or some combination of the
>               two.  Judging by the noise figure and insertion loss
>         specs on
>               the input components of the BYU receiver it seems
>         unlikely that
>               its net input noise temperature is much greater than
>         about 1000
>               K, unless something has failed or an LO has been set to the
>               wrong frequency or power level.
>
>               Your noise measurement at the output of the BYU receiver (E)
>               with the fiber link output connected to the BYU receiver
>         input
>               shows a net gain in the receiver of about 66 dB (133.7
>         dBm/Hz -
>               67.7 dBm/Hz).  This would suggest that the receiver is
>         working
>               more or less correctly.
>
>               For the sake of argument, let's say that the gain in the
>         Dewar
>               is 40 dB, the net gain if the fiber link is 35 db, and
>         the BYU
>               receiver gain is 66 dB for a total gain of 141 dB.  With
>         300 K
>               connected to the Dewar input (array looking at the hot
>         load) the
>               receiver output power density would be 141 - 174 = -33
>         dBm/Hz.
>                The BYU receiver output bandwidth is about 600 kHz so its
>               output power would be +24.8 dBm or about 3.9 Vrms, which
>         is far
>               more than the ADC wants or needs and more than the BYU
>         receiver
>               can deliver.  Hence, there's way too much total gain in the
>               system.
>
>               Where to add attenuation is determined by a balance
>         between the
>               need to dominate the noise of the system on the
>         down-stream side
>               of the attenuator when looking at cold sky and the
>         requirement
>               that all stages of the system be well within their linear
>               operating range when looking at the hot load. My guess
>         is that
>               this attenuation should be divided between the A-B
>         junction and
>               the C-D junction since the BYU receiver output level is
>               reasonably well matched to the ADC level requirements,
>         judging
>               by previous experience.
>
>               The ADC range is +/-1 V with 12-bit resolution so one
>         ADC level
>               spacing is 2.0 / 4096 = 0.49 mV, and the minimum voltage
>         level
>               presented to the ADC when looking at cold sky should be
>         about 2
>               mV rms into a 50 ohm load, and the maximum should be
>         about 200
>               mV rms when looking at the hot load. Hence, a good level
>         for the
>               ADC input is between -1 and -41 dBm
>
>               Someone should check my figures.
>
>               Rick
>
>               On Tue, 9 Apr 2013, Anish Roshi wrote:
>
>
>                     Hi All,
>
>                     Attached is a short write up on the measurements
>                     done on the PAF system.
>                     Anish
>
>
>                     On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 4:59 PM, Bill Shillue
>                     <bshillue at nrao.edu <mailto:bshillue at nrao.edu>> wrote:
>                           Meeting tomorrow Tues April 8th
>
>                           Phased Array Coordination
>
>                           9.30--10.30  NTC-200 and GB-137 by video
>
>                           topics:
>
>                           1. Data from last week (Anish).  Discussion of
>                     power levels and
>                           other issues (see Anish email)
>                           2. Testing schedule going forward
>                           3. Cornell tests indefinitely postponed
>                           4. Dates for testing with BYU backend (2nd
>                     half of May ?)
>                           5. Australia travel: travel is being setup.
>                      Waiting for NDA.
>                            Presentation needed.
>                           6. Summary of meeting with Tony Beasley
>                           7. Summary from David on setting up Roach
>                     testbed
>                           8. Other
>
>
>
>
>
>                           -----Original Message-----
>                           From: Bill Shillue
>                           Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 4:28 PM
>                           To: Rick Fisher (rfisher at nrao.edu
>         <mailto:rfisher at nrao.edu>); Anish
>                     Roshi; Steven White;
>                           Robert Simon (bsimon at nrao.edu
>         <mailto:bsimon at nrao.edu>); Michael
>                     Shannon; Matthew Morgan
>                           (mmorgan2 at nrao.edu
>         <mailto:mmorgan2 at nrao.edu>); DAVID SAROFF (RIT
>                     Student)
>                           (dps7802 at rit.edu <mailto:dps7802 at rit.edu>)
>                           Subject: Phased Array Coordination meeting
>
>                           Our usual meeting time of 9.30--10.30 is
>                     impacted tomorrow by a
>                           Division head meeting starting at 10 am GB137
>
>                           So we'll cover as much ground as we can before
>                     10 am.
>
>                           We'll start with testing status (Anish) and
>                     Cornell/BYU tests
>
>                           Bill
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
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-- 
Karl F. Warnick
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Brigham Young University
459 Clyde Building
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 422-1732





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