DEMONSTRATION OF A 180 GHZ FULL CMOS SPECTRALLY DISPERSED HETERODYNE RADIOMETER WITH InP LNA FOR REMOTE SENSING

Widespread deployment (both ground-based and spaceborne) of millimeter/submillimeter radiometers for composition specific atmospheric retrievals has been hindered by the cost, complexity, and power requirements traditionally associated with this hardware. One possible avenue to make such measurements more routine are millimeter-wave (180-200 GHz) heterodyne-detection electronics fabricated with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process techniques. When outfitted with indium phosphide (InP) low-noise amplifier (LNA) stages, cryogen free system temperatures (T$_{sys}$) of 800 - 1000 K can be achieved. This receiver system has been equipped with with a custom 6GS/s ADC / FFT (3GHz bandwidth) system-on-chip to spectrally disperse the generated intermediate frequency signal to allow for composition specific measurements of gas-phase samples.\footnote{Y. Kim \textit{et al.}, ``A 183-GHz InP/CMOS-Hybrid Heterodyne-Spectrometer for Spaceborne Remote Sensing," \textit{IEEE Trans. THz Sci. Technol.}, In Review.} The resulting system can be configured to meet the stringent size and power requirements needed for CubeSat/SmallSat integration thus making for a potentially useful planetary science instrument (i.e., limb sounder). This talk will discuss the performance properties of all components, laboratory trails demonstrating sensitivity to rarefied samples of CH$_{3}$CN and H$_{2}$O, and future plans for field deployment on ground-based and stratospheric balloon platforms