2 THz Receiver for Thermospheric Science with 7000K DSB Noise Temperature at Room Temperature

We report on the design, fabrication and preliminary characterization of the first fully solid-state room-temperature heterodyne receiver working around 2 THz. The receiver is based on a state-of-the-art subharmonically-pumped GaAs Schottky mixer and a state-of-the-art Schottky frequency multiplier chain at 1.0 THz that produces similar to 2mW of power. The receiver demonstrates a Double Side-band (DSB) noise temperature of less than 7000 K at room temperature. This result enables the construction of a space-borne heterodyne instrument to measure the wind velocities in the Earth's thermosphere by observing the emission of the atomic oxygen at 2.06THz.