Chapter 2 The interferometer principles Stéphane Guilloteau 38406 Saint Martin «'Heres, IRAM, 300 rue de 1a Piscine, ‘Tak lecture presents the principle of the heterodyne Intererameter. An heterodyne Interfwometer composed of antennas (described in A.Grove leclure 1), receivers (desatbed in BLazalf leture 3), 4 correlator (decribed in H.Wiesaneyer heture 4) aid an awful lot of cables an connections. "Thi Tctue only describes the basle principle; a morecomphte description, ineluding subtees due to multiple froqueney conversions and digital delay Hin, Is given in R-Lueas beture 5. 2.1 Basic principle ‘The antenae produc a Vollage proportional to the lear superposition of tt Ineldont olvtsie Held pattern, Fora dimple mompebromatie ease B() = Beost2eve + #) (2a) In the receiver, a mixer superimposes the fel gencrated by @ Local ociLietor to the antenna output Troll) = Qeos(2nre0t + Ao) (22) ‘The mise is @ non-linear clement (diode) whose output is + al¥ (0) + Vio(0) +ax(V() + Molt)! + ax(V0) + Molo + 2) ‘The meond order (quadratic) term of Fa.3 can be expressed as 1) 1) ances" Dave + ) 2a BQoas(2ut + Beosl2au.ot+ Pro) a Q"eos" Prot +10) ea)6 CHAPTER 2, THE INTERFEROMETER PRINCIPLES Ay by Ay Tae USBY Yo ae COSY > ie USBY 5 Yr Figue 2.1: Relation between the IF, RF and local esllstor Requenele nan heterodyne system Developping the product of the two cosine functions, we obtaln 1) + GE Qos(2x(v + molt ® + Bro) + eB Qoas(22(— mo}t+ Bro) + 23) ‘The are obviously ether terms In 2uy.0, 24, Sync, te... In the above equation, as wel as terms at vary diferent frequencies Uke v, Sv, te Dy inserting after at the output ofthe mixer, wecan select ony the term such that vyp ~ Avf2S [v—uyo| See + Mvp? (25) where wip, the sovaled Intermediate Frequency, & a frequency which is snlfeantly diferent from than ‘the original signal frequency v (whichis often called the Radio Frequency Une) Hence, after mixing and Mering, the output of the receiver TQ) EQees(2n(v— no)t+# ~ dio) en TQ) EQees(2r(vue - vt + 10) (28) 1e 1 changed in frequency: vy — vio oF v Fan0 —» ‘+ proportional to the orknal electe Beld of the ipedent wave: oc E ‘+ with a phase relaton with ths electile Bed: #4 yo or 8 Boo ‘+ proportional to the 2oce2 oseitLatar vatage: «@ ‘The frequency change, wsually towards lower frequouey, allows to selet vy such that amplifiers and ‘wansport coments are cui avallabb for furor processing. The mixer deseibed above accapts simulta neously frequencles which ate (see Fig2.1) ‘¢ Bigher than the toca onctt ator feaqueney. This b ealled Upper Side Band (USB) reception ‘+ lover-than the Loce1. opcitLatar frequency. ‘Thi b called Lower Side Band (LSB) reception and cansot « priori btingulsh between thera. This is called Double Side Band (DSB) reception. Some reves are actually Insensitive to one of the frequency range, ether beeause a fter has boon placed at the recelver input, or became ther response Is very strongly fequency dependent. Such reodvers are ‘illed Single Side Band (SSB) recel vers.22, THE HETERODYNE INTERFEROMETER " vy eoa(2nu(t—7)) vp cos(2nut) © ‘r9) @ Figure 2.2: Schematic Diagram of a iwoclement Inerfometer An Important property of the reedving system exprasod by Eg.28 Is that the sign of the phase changed for LSB: conversion. This property can be easly retsioved necognlang that the Frequency w the time derivative of the Phase ®. Assune the phase wales Ineatly with time a) = 2mnt iw a= 2 29) In this casey the signal TQ) x cos(2avt-+ (0) x ces2a(v +0) (210) Js jst another monochromatic signal with slightly shifted freuen. 2.2 The Heterodyne Interferometer Figure 22 a schematic Iltstzation of a -antenna heterodyne interferometer. Let us Jorge the frequency conversion for some time, Le ‘The input (amplified) signals from 2 elements ofthe imerferometer are processed ly a correlator, whieh Js just a voltage multiplier flowed ly atime Iniqgrator. With one incident plane wave, the ouiput (#) & rl) 4 es 2av(t —r9lt))hcos(2eut) >= vr vscos(2nu7()) ay)