Digital GaAs Autocorrelator Developed for Space Borne Submillimeter Astronomy

We present the development of a correlator module intended for space borne high resolution heterodyne spectroscopy. Our attention has been focused on power consumption reduction (few mW per channel needed), while looking for a high clock frequency (few hundreds of MHz) to cover wide bandwidths. The module proposed, which may be the base of an hybrid analog/digital spectrometer, is composed of two full custom Very Low Scale Integration (VLSI) circuits using two different technologies: a high speed MEtal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MESFET) on Gallium Arsenide substrate (GaAs) and a low power Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) on Silicon substrate (Si). A 0.8 m GaAs prototype circuit has been built and tested. It shows a correct global operation up to 242 MHz – and for marginal functions up to 611 MHz –, and a power consumption as expected by the simulations (less than 2 W). Expected improvements of the technology, together with some modifications developed here, demonstrate that a high frequency correlator module, meeting spatial requirements (many hundreds of channels and few mW per resolution point), should be feasible.