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The Herschel -Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI)

2010; EDP Sciences; Volume: 518; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1051/0004-6361/201014698

1432-0746

Th. de Graauw, F. Helmich, T. G. Phillips, J. Stützki, E. Caux, N. Whyborn, P. Dieleman, Peter Roelfsema, H. Aarts, R. Assendorp, R. Bachiller, W. Baechtold, A. Barcia, D. A. Beintema, Victor Belitsky, A. O. Benz, R. Bieber, A. C. A. Boogert, C. Borys, B. Bumble, Philippe Caïs, Michael Caris, P. Cerulli‐Irelli, Goutam Chattopadhyay, Serguei Cherednichenko, M. Ciechanowicz, O. Coeur-Joly, C. Comito, A. Cros, A. de Jonge, G. de Lange, B. Delforges, Y. Delorme, T. den Boggende, J.-M. Desbat, C. Diez-González, A. M. Di Giorgio, Luc Dubbeldam, K. Edwards, Martin Eggens, N. R. Erickson, Jaap Evers, M. Fich, Timothy Finn, B. Franke, T. Gaier, C. Gál, J. R. Gao, J. D. Gallego, S. Gauffre, J. Gill, S. Glenz, H. Golstein, H. Goulooze, Theo Gunsing, R. Güsten, P. Hartogh, W. A. Hatch, R. Higgins, E. C. Honingh, R. Huisman, B. D. Jackson, H. Jacobs, K. Jacobs, C. Jarchow, Hamid Javadi, Willem Jellema, M. Justen, A. Karpov, C. Kasemann, Jonathan H. Kawamura, Geert Keizer, D. J. M. Kester, T. M. Klapwijk, Th. Klein, E. Kollberg, J. W. Kooi, P.-P. Kooiman, B. Kopf, M. Krause, Jean-Michel Krieg, C. Krämer, Bob Kruizenga, Thomas Kühn, W. M. Laauwen, R. Lai, Bengt Larsson, H. G. LeDuc, Christian Leinz, R. Lin, R. Liseau, S. J. Liu, Andreas Loose, I. López-Fernández, S. Lord, W. Luinge, A. P. Marston, J. Martín‐Pintado, A. Maestrini, Frank Maiwald, C. McCoey, Imran Mehdi, A. Megej, M. Melchior, L. Meinsma, H. Merkel, M. Michalska, C. Monstein, Damian Moratschke, P. Morris, H. S. P. Müller, J. A. Murphy, Albert Naber, E. Natale, Witold Nowosielski, F. Nuzzolo, M. Olberg, Markus Olbrich, R. Orfei, P. Orleański, V. Ossenkopf, T. Peacock, J. C. Pearson, I. Péron, S. Phillip-May, Lorenzo Piazzo, P. Planesas, M. Rataj, Laurent Ravera, C. Risacher, M. Salez, Lorene Samoska, P. Saraceno, R. Schieder, Erich Schlecht, F. Schlöder, F. Schmülling, Michael K. Schultz, K. Schüster, O. Siebertz, H. G. J. Smit, R. Szczerba, R. Shipman, Erik S. Steinmetz, J. A. Stern, M. Stokroos, R. Teipen, D. Teyssier, T. Tils, N. Trappe, C. van Baaren, B. J. van Leeuwen, H. van de Stadt, Huib Visser, K. Wildeman, C. K. Wafelbakker, J. Ward, P. R. Wesselius, W. Wild, Stefanie Wulff, Hans-Joachim Wunsch, Xander Tielens, P. Zaal, Herbert Zirath, J. Žmuidzinas, F. Zwart,

Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology

Aims. This paper describes the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI) that was launched onboard ESA's Herschel Space Observatory in May 2009. Methods. The instrument is a set of 7 heterodyne receivers that are electronically tuneable, covering 480–1250 GHz with SIS mixers and the 1410–1910 GHz range with hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers. The local oscillator (LO) subsystem comprises a Ka-band synthesizer followed by 14 chains of frequency multipliers and 2 chains for each frequency band. A pair of auto-correlators and a pair of acousto-optical spectrometers process the two IF signals from the dual-polarization, single-pixel front-ends to provide instantaneous frequency coverage of 2 × 4 GHz, with a set of resolutions (125 kHz to 1 MHz) that are better than 0.1 km s -1 . Results. After a successful qualification and a pre-launch TB/TV test program, the flight instrument is now in-orbit and completed successfully the commissioning and performance verification phase. The in-orbit performance of the receivers matches the pre-launch sensitivities. We also report on the in-orbit performance of the receivers and some first results of HIFI's operations.