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Optical Design

The array optics will produce 7 hexagonally arranged beams on the sky. The spacing between adjacent beams is 2.0 times the diffraction limited beam size, 22". The size and placement of the beams is overlaid on HST images of M16 and the Hubble Deep Field below. All 7 beams clear the elevation flange and warm optics at the tex2html_wrap_inline39 4 tex2html_wrap_inline41 level. Once through the vacuum window, the beams pass through two Martin-Puplett Interferometers (MPIs); one serves as a single-sideband (SSB) filter and the other an LO diplexer. A lenslet array is used between the two MPIs to refocus the beams. The required pathlength through the MPIs and the nominal distance of the focus from the elevation flange determines the minimum separation of the beams on the sky. In order to minimize power loss through the MPIs and problems with size, weight, and optical alignment, each beam has a direct line of sight from the mixer to the secondary. The two MPI's and associated optics are cooled to tex2html_wrap_inline43 .

345 GHz beams
overlaid on the HDF 345 GHz beams
overlaid on M16