Millimeter waves instrumentation overview at the IRAM observatories

Biography :
Christophe Risacher received the M.Sc. degree in engineering from École Supérieure d’Électricité (Supélec), Gif-sur-Yvette, France, in 1998, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2005.,
Since 1998, he has been with various radio astronomy observatories developing novel instrumentation and supporting observations. Among those are the IRAM 30 m telescope in Granada, Spain, the Chalmers University of Technology with the Onsala Observatory, Onsala, Sweden, the Apex Telescope with the European Southern Observatory, and the HIFI instrument with the Herschel Observatory.
From 2011 to 2018, he was with the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn, Germany, as the Project Manager responsible for the development of the upGREAT array receivers for the SOFIA NASA/DLR airborne observatory.
Since 2018, he has been the Receiver Group Leader with the Institute Radio Astronomie Millimétrique, Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France.

Abstract :
IRAM is an international research institute for millimeter-wave radio astronomy, founded over 45 years ago.  Our institute operates two observatories, the first one in the Hautes-Alpes, on the plateau de Bure, at 2550m, called the NOEMA interferometer, which consists of 12 antennas of 15m diameter, observing in the 70-375 GHz frequency band. The second observatory is in Spain, in the Sierra Nevada, at 2900m altitude, with a 30m-diameter antenna observing in the same frequency ranges.   I will present a brief history showing the evolution of the different receivers used in these observatories (heterodyne and continuum instrumentation).  The next generations of receivers currently under development and those planned for the longer term will also be described.  Finally, measurement benches and examples of laboratory equipment will be discussed, to show how our systems are characterized, from an optical point of view (antenna bench), RF (network analyzer with mm extension, custom modules) and on-site during instrument calibrations.