Liquid crystal polymer receiver modules for electron cyclotron emission imaging on the DIII-D tokamak

Zhu, Y.; Ye, Y.; Yu, J. -H.; Tobias, B.; Pham, A. -V.; Wang, Y.; Luo, C.; Domier, C. W.; Kramer, G.; Ren, Y.; Diallo, A.; Nazikian, R.; Chen, M.; Yu, G.; Luhmann, Jr., N. C.

doi:10.1063/1.5035373

Liquid crystal polymer receiver modules for electron cyclotron emission imaging on the DIII-D tokamak

Journal Article · Wed Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Review of Scientific Instruments

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5035373· OSTI ID:1487098

Zhu, Y. ^[1]; Ye, Y. ^[1]; Yu, J. -H. ^[1]; Tobias, B. ^[2]; Pham, A. -V. ^[1]; Wang, Y. ^[1]; Luo, C. ^[1]; ^[1]; Kramer, G. ^[3]; Ren, Y. ^[3]; Diallo, A. ^[3]; Nazikian, R. ^[3]; Chen, M. ^[1]; ^[1]; Luhmann, Jr., N. C. ^[1]

Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

A new generation of millimeter-wave heterodyne imaging receiver arrays has been developed and demonstrated on the DIII-D electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) system. Improved circuit integration, improved noise performance, and enhanced shielding from out-of-band emission are made possible by using advanced liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrates and monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) receiver chips. This array exhibits ~15 dB additional gain and >30× reduction in noise temperature compared to previous generation ECEI arrays. Each LCP horn-waveguide module houses a 3 × 3 mm GaAs MMIC receiver chip, which consists of a low noise millimeter-wave preamplifier, balanced mixer, and IF amplifier together with a local oscillator multiplier chain driven at ~12 GHz. A proof-of-principle partial LCP instrument with 5 poloidal channels was installed on DIII-D in 2017, with a full proof-of-principle system (20 poloidal × 8 radial channels) installed and commissioned in early 2018. The enhanced shielding of the LCP modules is seen to greatly reduce the sensitivity of ECEI signals to out-of-band microwave noise which has plagued previous ECEI studies on DIII-D. As a result, the LCP ECEI system is expected to be a valuable diagnostic tool for pedestal region measurements, focusing particularly on electron temperature evolution during edge localized mode bursting.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-09CH11466; FC02-04ER54698; FG02-99ER54531

OSTI ID:: 1487098

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1597416
OSTI ID: 1476966

Journal Information:: Review of Scientific Instruments, Journal Name: Review of Scientific Instruments Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 89; ISSN 0034-6748

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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