The European Space Agency's Planck satellite, launched on 14 May 2009, is the third-generation space experiment in the field of cosmic microwave background (CMB) research. It will image the anisotropies of the CMB over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity ( ΔT T ∼ 2 × 10 −6 ) and angular resolution (∼5 arcmin). Planck will provide a major source of information relevant to many fundamental cosmological problems and will test current theories of the early evolution of the Universe and the origin of structure. It will also address a wide range of areas of astrophysical research related to the Milky Way as well as external galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The ability of Planck to measure polarization across a wide frequency range (30−350 GHz), with high precision and accuracy, and over the whole sky, will provide unique insight, not only into specific cosmological questions, but also into the properties of the interstellar medium. This paper is part of a series which describes the technical capabilities of the Planck scientific payload. It is based on the knowledge gathered during the on-ground calibration campaigns of the major subsystems, principally its telescope and its two scientific instruments, and of tests at fully integrated satellite level. It represents the best estimate before launch of the technical performance that the satellite and its payload will achieve in flight. In this paper, we summarise the main elements of the payload performance, which is described in detail in the accompanying papers. In addition, we describe the satellite performance elements which are most relevant for science, and provide an overview of the plans for scientific operations and data analysis.

Abstract-This paper provides a rigorous study of the causes and physical origins of intermodulation distortion (IMD) in RF microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitors, its analytical dependence on the MEMS device design parameters, and its effects in RF systems. It is shown that not only third-order products exist, but also fifth order and higher. The high-order terms are mainly originated by the nonlinear membrane displacement versus applied voltage and, in the case considered in this study, with an additional contribution from the nonlinear dependence of the reflection coefficient phase on the displacement. It is also shown that the displacement nonlinear behavior also contributes to the total mean position of the membrane. In order to study these effects in depth, an analytical frequency-dependent IMD model for RF MEMS based on a mobile membrane is proposed and particularized to the case of a MEMS varactor-a device for which IMD can be significant. The model is validated, up to the fifth order, theoretically (using harmonic balance) and empirically (the IMD of a MEMS varactor is measured). To this end, a two-tone IMD reflection measurement system for MEMS is proposed.

A novel method for measuring the four noise parameters of a field-effect transistor (FET) is presented. It is based on the determination of its intrinsic noise matrix elements [C INT 11 , C INT 22 , Re(C INT 12), Im(C INT 12)] by fitting the measured device noise figure for a matched source reflection coefficient (F50) at a number of frequency points, thus, a tuner is not required. In contrast to previous works, no restrictive assumptions are made on the intrinsic noise sources. The receiver full-noise calibration is easily performed by using a set of coaxial and on-wafer standards that are commonly available in a microwave laboratory, thus, an expensive broad-band tuner is not required for calibration either. On-wafer experimental verification up to 26 GHz is presented and a comparison with other F 50-based and tunerbased methods is given. As an application, the dependence of the FET intrinsic noise sources as a function of the bias drain-current and gate-length is obtained.

Abstract-In this paper, a new theoretical analysis of the fourstandards line-reflect-reflect-match (LRRM) vector network-analyzer (VNA) calibration technique is presented. As a result, it is shown that the reference-impedance (to which the LRRM calibration is referred) cannot generally be defined whenever nonideal standards are used. Based on this consideration, a new algorithm to determine the on-wafer match standard is proposed that improves the LRRM calibration accuracy. Experimental verification of the new theory and algorithm using on-wafer calibrations up to 40 GHz is given.

International audiencehis paper presents the design and implementation of uniplanar bandpass filters that use end-coupled slotline resonators and a new kind of multimodal immitance inverter. These inverters are based on an asymmetric shunt-short-circuit coplanar waveguide (CPW) transition, and are modeled using a multimodal circuit model, which takes into account both fundamental modes of the CPW (the even and the odd modes). From this model, analytical design expressions for the inverters are obtained. These structures are used as input/output inverters of a new class of compact low-loss arbitrary-order easily reconfigurable uniplanar filters featuring half-wavelength and quarter-wavelength end-coupled resonators. A multimodal model is obtained for these filters, which allows an accurate analysis, design, and prediction of their behavior. By using these multimodal tools, three second- and fourth-order prototypes, and a second-order frequency-tunable prototype, were designed and implemented. The fourth-order filter has an insertion loss of 2.2 dB at 2 GHz with an out-of-band rejection better than 20 dB in an extremely wide frequency band. The frequency-tunable filter features a tuning range from 1 to 1.37 GHz with quasi-constant 3-dB bandwidth from 121 to 135 MHz. The measurements show a good agreement with the proposed multimodal model, thus validating the model and the design methodology