Radiometric Noise Characterization of the 183-664 GHz Front-End Receivers for the MetOp-SG Ice Cloud Imager instrument – prospects for future missions

The 183-664 GHz heterodyne Schottky and MMIC based receivers for the Ice Cloud Instrument onboard MetOp-SG have been developed and tested against the most stringent requirements of an operation space mission. The Noise Figure and short-term gain stability (1/f) of these receivers was one of the key aspects to ensure the desired sensitivity at instrument level. A review of the methods and state-of-the-art results obtained on the Proto-Flight (PFM) and 2
^nd
Flight (FM2) Models will be presented and compared. Outcome of these results in the light of future missions will be discussed to evaluate future routes to integration.