Endwave’s two custom-designed millimeter-wave receiver modules are designed for radiometer applications. Two downconverter models have been custom-designed to operate at the K-band (20 GHz to 40 GHz) and the V-Band (50 GHz to 75 GHz). Gain calibration is accomplished using an internal K- or V-Band noise source, a noise injection coupler, and a precision temperature sensor.

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Using a +2.0 dBm Ku-Band local oscillator (LO) input to each module, both units employ a sub-harmonic mixer topology to down-convert from the millimeter-wave input frequency to an IF output under 1 GHz, providing 30 dB of nominal gain to the input signal.

The V-Band module utilizes an additional diode-based frequency doubler on the LO input, allowing a common local oscillator to drive both modules. Overall, the receiver noise figure is under 4 dB for the K-Band model and under 6 dB for the V-Band receiver.

Applications include comprehensive real-time atmosphere profiling for airport air traffic control, severe weather forecasting, and homeland security atmospheric sensing. Additional transceiver subsystem data can be found at on Endwave’s web site.