Achievements in reporting period:

• List of working documents
• List of activities organised during reporting period

1. 1) Overall kick-off meeting - Manchester 12 March 2009
   

1. 2) Architecture and passive components (tasks 1 and 2) – 1st meeting Bologna 27/28 April 2009
   

1. 3) MMIC procurement and testing (tasks 3 and 4) – 1st meeting Gothenburg 23 June 2009
   

• Meetings attended – both meetings for NA organisation or meetings on behalf of RadioNet

1. 1) Three APRICOT JRA planning meetings - as above
   
2. 2) P.I. to Meeting of RadioNet Board Amsterdam (Schiphol) 30/31 March 2009
   
3. 3) P.I. to Keck Institute for Space Studies: MMIC Array Spectrographs Workshop Caltech 22

March 2009

1. 4) P.I. to AMSTAR+ JRA kick-off meeting Grenoble 20 May 2009
   
2. 5) Many APRICOT members: to FP7 RadioNet Engineering Forum Gothenburg 23/24 June

2009

Problems / Issues

• Issues - organisational, administrative or other problems foreseen

The only major issue at this stage is the delay in start-up funds from EC. The partners as a whole are not able to recruit their proposed personnel until the funds have begun to flow. This is a particular issue for task 5 (Optimisation of Receiver Usage) with lead partner UMKand as a result this task has not yet started. The importance of task 5 for the overall receiver specification means that deliverables/milestones 8.01 and 8.02 will also be delayed. Other institute-based partners are able to start their work programmes with some critical staff alread in place, even if not yet funded through the WP8 JRA line. As a result planning for all the other tasks has begun in earnest.

In general, therefore, the project has got off to a promising start, in terms of coordination and initial planning. We have held an overall kick-off meeting and two specialised planning meetings. Each of the latter combined two tasks which naturally fit together i.e. task 1 (receiver architecture) and task 2 (passive components) followed by task 3 (MMIC design and procurement) and task 4 (LNA testing). The task 1+2 meeting drafted an initial working specification for the receiver and discussed a range of options for meeting these specifications. The task 3+4 meeting began the process of defining the priorities for MIC and MMIC procurement and LNA testing in concert with the three “foundries” (IAF, OMMIC, UMAN). The task3+4 meeting was held in the middle of the FP7 RadioNet Engineering Forum in Gothenburg on “Low Noise Figure Measurements” and was greatly informed by the discussion during the meeting, which included non-European invited participants.

Since the effective goal of this JRA is to arrive at an end-to-end costed design of a Q-band (33-50 GHz) camera it must, a fortiori, be highly coordinated. This implies as many face-to-face meetings as the partners can reasonably sustain, given their other responsibilities. It is therefore likely that the travel budget for WP8 will be larger than originally anticipated. To partly mitigate this we are aiming, wherever possible, to hold twice-yearly face-to face meetings of WP8 in collaboration with the RadioNet Engineering Forum Meetings.

• Red flags - major problems - Ordered List Item

Forward Look

Meetings planned for next 6 months related to this JRA

1. 1) “Science in the band 33-50 GHz”: (ALMA band-1 and APRICOT): to be held in Manchester

14-15 September 2009.

1. 2) Task 5 kick off meeting: “Optimisation of Receiver Usage”– Autumn 2009 (after recruitment

at UMK completed)

1. 3) Full WP8 JRA meeting ( “Preliminary Internal Design Review”) – MPIfR Bonn November

2009 (associated with FP7 RadioNet Engineering Forum meeting on “Multi-Pixel Arrays”

Programmes of work for tasks (assuming funding begins to flow)

- Task 1) Lead partner (MPG) to recruit personnel. Complete working definition of overall receiver specification in the light of science requirements from Manchester meeting in September and the task 5 meeting on the optimization of receiver usage (date to bespecified in Autumn). The science meeting will inform task 1 about the required specifications for sensitivity, polarisation quality, spectroscopic demands etc. The task 5 meeting will inform task 1 about the options for using non-switched receiver concepts in the light of expected receiver gain fluctuations and atmospheric fluctuations. Both are vital for the definition of the preferred receiver concept. o Deliverable 8.02 and milestone 8.01 to be completed

- Task 2) Lead partner (INAF) to recruit of personnel: Continue studies begun on passive components, both classical waveguide and planar. Inform Task 1 of options for feeds and polarisation architecture.

- Task 3) Lead partner (UMAN) to recruit personnel and begin physical modelling of InP discrete transistors. Acquire test sample quantities of discrete transistors from the three foundries. Continue prioritisation of MIC and MMIC requirements from each foundry. Begin specification and initial design of highest priority circuits.

- Task 4) Lead partner (CAY/FG-IGN) to recruit personnel. Begin testing of start-up samples of discrete transistors from foundries. Initial testing with existing amplifiers principally in CAY (at 4-8 GHz and 18-26 GHz) and at other frequencies in other partners based on availability of existing test amplifers . CAY to begin definition of proposed cryogenic transfer amplifier standard with partners.

- Task 5) Lead partner (UMK) to recruit personnel. . Hold WP8 meeting on “Optimisation of Receiver Usage”. Begin development of working atmospheric model based on existing studies in Manchester and MPG partners
- - o Deliverable 8.01 and milestone 8.02 to be completed

• Plan for next quarter/half year– 3 and 6 month outlook, more detail in first 3 months (including budget)
• Expected milestones/deliverables

EC DoW deliverables List

EC DoW List of milestones

• * Expenditures - equipment, material and services
  

deferred - given delay in initial funding

• * Person month spent/to be spent until next EC Report (note comments in italics): **
  

*Number of Persons working in JRA*

• Number of Persons working in JRA