TK/QMCI’s contribution to the event horizon telescope

TK and QMC instruments has been privileged to supply – over the last decade – many of the receiver components used by the event horizon telescope collaboration to generate the first image at 1.3mm (230 GHz) of the supermassive black hole in Messier 87.

The Event Horizon Telescope is make up of many mm-wave telescopes and arrays of telecopes to provide the long baseline (the size of the Earth) to give the necessary angular resolution to resolve the area around the Black Hole.

For the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Hawaii-based SMA, we  provided the integrated corrugated horns/SIS mixer blocks  which define the beam  that each telescope sees, and holds the cryogenically cooled superconducting detecting elements, as well as large polarizing wire grids and cold teflon lenses to control the incoming beam.

For the ALMA Array, we provided both the radiometric  Calibration Targets and the Band 6 Anti-Reflection (AR) Coated vacuum windows as well as supplying parts to both the JCMT and to IRAM telecopes.