AMiBA Engineering Telecon Minutes

Summary

Correlator:

1. Derek asked Marki if they can provide a biased mixer with higher responsivity. Marki commented that they need to understand the mechanism responsible for the low level mixing products before they can attempt to make a better mixer. They would like to duplicate out measurements but does not have high impedance test equipment. Derek will assemble a DC amplifier fixture and send it to Marki, so they can do the same test.

2. Warwick commented on Marki and Rapadas approaches, he guessed they can achieve the same result in both cases. However for Marki one we need to drive it harder, and this will be more expensive to do so. Based on that, he thought we'd better go with Rapadas one at this moment.

3. Derek received the quote on Merrimac 4 way power divider, 2-18GHzC.T. $440 for each, and in parallel, C.T. has been working on the design of power divider. we need to think more about either to buy or to make by our own.

4. Derek has send specs out for power amplifier to Huei this Tuesday.

5. As for the prototype correlator, Warwick is looking forward to bring it to Taipei by May 6, Derek will prepare connectors and cable to connect correlator with receivers. Derek will schedule a visit to Taipei as same as Warwick, and will bring the power dividers of KRYTAR with him to Taipei as well. Jeff will be not able to come here to join this lab test, and Mike can come.

Receiver:

There are still some problems with the prototype, and the receiver group is working on that.

MMIC:

The design process for InP HEMT in TRW is moving smoothly, and hope to get the final layout for approval whine a week or two.

Far field range measurement:

Everything is going on well, and now is waiting for the mount tooling back.

Vertex mount:

1. Taida is satisfied with the final quote from Vertex, Paul has generated a purchase agreement and circulated to Bob and Fred for review and comment.

2. We got a initial time schedule from Vertex, contract is starting from April 22 and 23 with a kick-off meeting in Germany, mount will be ready to ship by June 2003.

Platform:

Bob has outlined the parameters, Ted is on the process to drawing up some of the new layout to reduce the complexity of the platform itself.

60cm dish:

Bob is still waiting for the quote from Miliflect, and in parallel, Ted is modifying the drawing as well.

As for the FEA , Bob has talked to Philippe and asked him to make some guesses on the material of dish from Miliflect specs sheet so that he can start analysis without waiting for the reply from Miliflect.

Back-end processing IC chips

Jackie sent out 20 chips of the second iteration to Warwick by FederalEx yesterday.

Action items

1. Derek/ Derek will follow up to talk to Rapadas to see if he can go directly to improve the 4 lag correlator with 6dB pads added to both inputs of each mixer.

2. Derek/ Derek will go over the work package this week and update the quantity and prices in this week.

3. Mingtang/Mike As for connecting the two prototype receivers with correlator to see how phase switch going during the week of May 6, and to use the existing transmitter to measure the far field range. Mingtang and Mike will discuss the details offline and will generate a test plan by next Monday.

1. Huei/ Todd Gaier is on vacation, Huei will follow up to check with Todd next week about the status of quote for 28 LNA as well as the approval progress for IAA/JPL collaboration on MMIC packaging and testing.

2. Bob/ As for the optical telescope, Bob will follow up to get the quote from the venders in Tucson.

3. Mike/ As for the analysis on the shape of 60 cm dish, Mike, Rave and Ue-Li are still working on that, Mike will follow up to push out the result shortly.

Next meeting: Thursday, April 18, 8:30AM Taipei time.