The C2N and the Laboratoire d’Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique et Atmosphères – LERMA1 have jointly developed a process to fabricate terahertz Schottky nano-diodes, leading to the realisation of the world most sensitive heterodyne receiver at 1080-1275 GHz. This device was selected to equip an instrument of the ESA mission JUICE, which will take off in 2022.
Schottky diodes are basic building blocks of terahertz and sub-terahertz frequency mixers and multipliers that can operate at room and cryogenic temperature. They are necessary to meet the needs of different CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) and ESA (European Space Agency) space missions. CNES and LERMA have long sought a French supplier of such mixers / multipliers to build receivers and heterodyne submillimetre instruments for astronomy, planetary science and atmospheric remote sensing.
