QUBIC VII: The feedhorn-switch system of the technological demonstrator

CAVALIERE, F.; CLAUDIA G. SCOCCOLA; AND THE QUBIC COLLABORATION

JOURNAL OF COSMOLOGY AND ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2021

1475-7516

We present the design, manufacturing and performance of the horn-switchsystem developed for the technological demonstrator of QUBIC (the Q&UBolometric Interferometer for Cosmology). This system is constituted of 64back-to-back dual-band (150,GHz and 220,GHz) corrugated feed-hornsinterspersed with mechanical switches used to select desired baselines duringthe instrument self-calibration. We manufactured the horns in aluminumplatelets milled by photo-chemical etching and mechanically tightened withscrews. The switches are based on steel blades that open and close thewave-guide between the back-to-back horns and are operated by miniaturizedelectromagnets. We also show the current development status of thefeedhorn-switch system for the QUBIC full instrument, based on an array of 400horn-switch assemblies.