News

The European Space Agency mission Planck will be launched from the Kourou launch site in French Guyana in May 2009.

Planck will travel to the zero gravity point "Le Grangian point 2" (L2), 1.5 million km, along the Earth-Sun axis, on the side of the Earth away from the Sun. At L2, Planck will spend two years measuring and mapping the Cosmic Background Radiation (CMB). These CMB, radio-signals are resultant from the "Big Bang" universe creation event.

They have been travelling for 13.7 billion years, reducing in energy and also shifting downwards in frequency from optical to microwaves. Mapping their variation will provide deep insight into the very early universe creation events. Signal power is measured as a microwave noise and described as a radiometric temperature. The signals are ~2.7K (degrees above absolute zero).

To detect and measure these signals, DA-Design has provided the most sensitive radio receivers ever built at 70GHz. For these "extremely quiet" receivers DA-Design developed state-of-the-art integrated circuits. To maintain the low noise levels, these are operated at a physical temperature of 20K. DA-Design has full design, development, manufacture and test responsibility for these receivers, from 1998 until their delivery in August 2007, under the direction of the Finnish research institutes VTT & MilliLab. 

Planck is the biggest Finnish space project. It has stimulated high quality research and know-how from the companies involved and will provide completely new astronomical data for further basic research by Finnish groups, within a worldwide framework of research cooperation.

The design of such "extremely quiet" receivers has applications to other radio-frequency measurement areas where signals are of very low power. These techniques will be used in extending the range and accuracy of atmospheric radars and in the use of radiometer receivers for imaging through visibly impervious media such as fog.

More information

Planck MilliLab VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Tekes News - Finnish technology will help scientists study the birth of the universe

ESA - Herschel and Planck to lift off on 14 May 

ESA - Planck