Miroslav Pantaleev

pantaleev@oso.chalmers.se

Term paper:
Estimation of the heat leaks in GBMR test cryostat

Introduction:
GBMR (Gaussian Beam Measurement Range) is a setup for measurement of the
beam pattern of quasioptical receivers for the European Space Agency Project
Herschel Space Observatory. The project is developed at GARD (Group for
Advanced Receiver Development). Receivers will be part of the Heterodyne
Instrument (HIFI) for high-resolution spectroscopy with frequency coverage of 480 to
1250 GHz in five receiver bands and 1410 to 1910 GHz in two additional bands. The
mixers are SIS for bands 1-5 and HEB type for bands 6l and 6h, which requires
cryogenics temperatures for the test measurements. One of the key problems in
achieving ultimate performance of the HIFI instrument is the receiver beam coupling
to the antenna with required alignment tolerance of 1% coupling loss per degree of
freedom. This entails precise measurement of the MSA input beam with respect to its
mechanical reference to accomplish the required alignment accuracy. Such a
measurement includes complete data on the MSA input Gaussian beams, including
the sky signal and local oscillator (LO) paths, and comprises orientation of the optical
axis, position of the waist, size of the waist and the shape of the beam down to 30
dBm power level.
1
4
5
6
10
3
9
8 6 10
2
1
7

Figure 1. Layout of the Gaussian beam measurement setup. The insert shows 3D
model of the cold plate (the upper left corner).
Figure 1 shows the layout of the built system. The MSA (1) together with the
second stage IF amplifier is installed on the cold plate of the cryogenic station (2) at
the temperature of 4K. The receiver under test is operated in super heterodyne mode
using standard optical scheme with LO (3) injected from side and coupled to the
mixer beam via wire grid (4). The idle LO beam is damped with absorber (5) behind
the grid. We adopted the scalar measuring technique: the beam (6) is scanned by a
point radiation source (7) placed on a hexapod scanner (8). The source emits signal at
wavelength corresponding to the frequency of tested MSA. Normally the measured
beam should pass through a window on the cryostat; to avoid distortion of the beam,
the test source on the scanner is placed inside cylindrical vacuum chamber (9) with
dimensions of 1.2 m long and diameter of 1 m connected via gate- valve of diameter
about 34 cm to the cryostat vacuum chamber. The scanner covers travelling range of
600 mm along the chamber (z axis), 180x180 mm perpendicular to the beam axis (x
and y axis) and 20 degree rotation around x and y with positioning accuracy t10 m.

Description of the cryostat:

The cryostat (Infrared Lab HDL series [1]) is shown on in the insert in Table 1. It has
operating Temperature Range of 1.2K to 4,2K. The dewar contains two cryogenic
vessels housed in vacuum chamber. The LN
2
vessel directly cools a radiation shield
that surrounds the LHe vessel and the cold work surface. All interior cryostat surfaces
are lined with metal foil in order to provide additional shielding. The diameter of the
cold plate is 250mm.
The cryostat was ordered with extended capacity of the LHe vessel and circular
radiation shields that allows useful height on the cold platform of 100mm.
Specification of the cryostat is given in Table 1.
Dewar Outside Diameter
(inches)
11.95
Dewar Height (inches) 13.50
Cold Plate Diameter (inches) 10.18
Work Area Height - "B"
Dimension (mm)
100
Weight (pounds) 42.0
LN
2
Capacity (liters) 4.2
LN
2
Hold Time - standard
supports (hours)
35
LN
2
Hold Time - rigid supports
(hours)
32
LHe Capacity (liters) 5.2
LHe Hold Time - standard
supports (hours)
135
LHe Hold Time - rigid supports
(hours)
47

Table 1. Specification of the cryostat
Support structure was designed and implemented later. The vacuum chamber was
integrated to the big vacuum chamber (Figure 1) of the measurement setup via
interface flange. It purposes to match the Infrared Lab vacuum interface to DN320
vacuum flange and also to assure enough height to fit the MSA.
To accomudate the MSA on the cold plate it is necessary to provide electrical
connections (IF and Bias), RF connection in this case opening toward the probe
source and LO connection also opening toward the LO generator. The DC Bias
interface of the MSA consists of three 9 pins MDM connectors. One IF coaxial cable
is the down converted signal. To provide enough amplification of that signal it is
required to install second stage IF on the cold plate (Figure 2).
Spectrum
Analizer
LO sourc
4K stage
MSA
Probe
source
S
c
a
n
n
e
r
Vacuum
IR window
PC
Beam splitter
Bias supply
unit

Figure 2. RF, IF, and biasing block diagram.

It is powered via an additional 9 pins MDM connector. To that amount of 36 electrical
connections we considered to add 18 more to be used for temperature sensors and
heaters plus some additional safety margins. We have chosen Lake Shore Quad-Lead
Cryogenic wire QL-36. That is a 4-wire "ribbon cable" which makes heat sinking and
dressing leads much easier than working with individual wires. The wire is also color
coded for easy lead identification and can be split to yield two wire pairs. Quad-Lead
wire is also useful in standard 4-lead measurements. The insulation is vinyl acetal
resin, as a smooth uniform film. It has excellent mechanical properties such as
abrasion resistance and flexibility. The film will stand excessive elongation without
rupture. Formvar can be removed mechanically or chemically during terminal
preparation. Electrical and mechanical properties are summarized in Appendix A,
Table A1.
Based on previous experience that during the installation of the coaxial cables in to
the cryostat they can be damaged and their RF performance can be destroyed we have
put in 3 stainless steel coaxial cables. Using available data [3] we choose UT-85-B-SS
semi rigid coaxial cable. It has stainless steel outer conductor and PTFE dielectric.
The inner conductor is made from steel in silver plated copper shell. The data is given
in Appendix A, TableA2:
The DC biasing cables and coaxial cables are thermally anchroated at the top of the
LN vessel (temperature of the boiled N
2
gas ~90K), on the bottom of the LN vessel
(temperature of the liquid N
2
~77K), at the top of the liquid He vessel (temperature of
the boiled He
2
gas ~20K) and at the bottom of the He vessel (temperature of the liquid
he gas ~4.2K). The DC cables are soldered to Printed Circuit Board glued on
Aluminium heat sinks fixed to the cold plate for final heat termination (see Figure 3).

After some changes in the design of the MSA it was necessary to modify the radiation
shields to accommodate it on the cold plate. We have made also additional
mechanical support to prevent the inner part of the cryostat from vibrations. The
required preciseness of the measurement entails no any infrared filters between the
300K and 4K stage. Any such a filter would distort the measured beam pattern. The
initial design of the openings is based only on the geometry of the beams of the MSA,
LO and the Triangulation system gave area of few square centimetres looking directly
toward 300K.

Figure 3. a. The cryostat with mounted shield; b. the cold plate.

Estimation of the heat leaks:

In the end of November last year we started the first test of integration of the
measurement equipment and tests of the holding time of the cryostat. Along with the
experiments it was necessary some estimation of the heat leaks in to be made.

To estimate the heat leaks we adopted the following approach. We have made several
tests of the holding time:
- the cryostat with the wiring installed and equipped with the original shields. We
have obtained holding time of approximately 54 hours. The vacuum level was
about 2-3.10
-7
mbar;
- then we have mounted the new shields with blinded openings. We obtained
slightly shorter holding time that can be due to absence of superinsulation
material covering the shields.
- Next experiment was made with openings looking at 300K and 5mm thick copper
plate attached to the cold plate at 50mm besides the openings. This experiment
did not show significant dropping of the holding time. This might be explained
with the fact that the copper plate was too near the openings and speculary
reflected back significant fraction of the radiation coming from 300K.
- Currently (05/02/2003) we are performing test with all the necessary parts
installed on the cold plate.

To make calculations for the heat flux into the LHe vessel the following sources must
be taken into account: Heat conduction through LHe vessel wall; heat convection
between the LHe vessel wall and evaporated helium gas; radiation between LHe
vessel and thermal shields; radiation from 300K towards 4K stage via the openings;
heat conduction of residual gas; heat conduction via the cables, filling pipe and
support structure. The heat balance equation, which accounts the heat transfer via
conductance with temperature dependent thermal conductivity coefficient, heat
convection, radiation and conductance with temperature independent thermal
conductivity coefficient is:
( ) ( ) 0 ) (
2 1
4
2
4
1 0
+ +

1
]
1

T T KC T T A
x
T
C m
x
T
T
dx
d
A
p
& (1)
where Ais the area of the cross section, ) (T K is the thermal dependent thermal
conductivity, Lis the length and T is the temperature difference across the heat
conduction path, is efficiency of heat transfer, m& is mass flow rate of the gas,
p
C
is specific heat of the gas, is the effective emissivity, A is the surface area and
4 2 8
/ 10 . 67 , 5 K m W

is Stefan-Boltzman constant and K is thermal independent

conductivity of the residual gas
Since the heat conducted by the filling pipe and the heat transferred by the gases are
the same for the original configuration and the configuration of interest we are not
going to estimate them. Here are some numerical results for the different sources of
heat leaks related mainly with the modification of the cryostat that we have made:
- heat flow from the openings looking at 300K;
- radiation flow towards 4K stage from the 77K shields;
- heat conducted through the wires;
- heat conducted through support structure;
- contribution from the Joule heating (MSA, second IF and temperature sensors).

1. The heat transfer by radiation per unit time between two bodies at temperatures
1
T
and
2
T is given with:
( )
2 1 2 1
2 1 4
2
4
1
.

+
T T A Q (2)
where
2 1
, are emissivities of the two bodies, A is the surface area and. Below are
given calculation of the heat transfer obtained with MathCAD:
First we calculate the heat transfer from 77K radiation shield towards 4K shield
W Q_radiation
HN
0.049 Q_radiation
HN
A
N
T
77
4
T
4
4
( )
HN
:

HN

H

N

H

N
+
H

N

:
m
2 A
H
2 Hhr Hhc ( )
Hcover
2

,
2
+ :
m
2
Hcover 250 10
3
: Hhr
250 10
3

2
: Hhc 90 10
3
:

H
0.31 : Data for the He part
A
N
2 Nhr Nhc ( )
Ncover
2

,
2
+ :
m
2
Ncover 260 10
3
: Nhr
260 10
3

2
: Nhc 100 10
3
:

N
0.31 : Data for the N2 part
W/m2k4 5.67 10
8
: K T
4
4.2 : K T
77
77 : K T
300
300 :

In similar manner we repeat the calculations above but with the geometry of the
modified radiation shields:
Q_radiation_new_
HN
A
N
T
77
4
T
4
4
( )
HN
: Q_radiation_new_
HN
0.104 W

The total heat load is doubled installing the new shields, but that is still small fraction
compare to the cooling capacity of the cryostat. During the tests temperature
difference of 20-25K was measured between temperature sensors (TS) mounted on
the cold plate and TS mounted at the middle at the shield (approximately 150mm
from the cold plate).

The contribution from the openings looking at 300K can be estimated in two ways:
- we consider that luminance areas are the same, but the emissivity of the 300K is
the emissivity of the black body. We have three openings: one circular on the
optical path of the MSAs beam (diameter 30mm), one for the triangulation
system (square 25x25mm) and one optical path of the LO. The last one is clear
opening on the 4K shield and the opening on 77K shield is covered with IR filter
made of 2mm thick mylar. In this case we get the heat transferred from 77K to
4K as
W Q_radiation_77 Q_radiation_77 A
N
T
77
4
T
4
4

_
,

HN
:

HN

H

300

H

300
+
H

300

:
m
2
A
H
A
H
d
H
0.5 ( )
2

1
]
Hboxl Hboxl + :
Hboxl 25 10
3
: m d
H
28 10
3
:
H
0.01 : Data for the He part
m
2
A
N
2 d
N
0.5 ( )
2

1
]
:
300
0.8 : m d
N
28 10
3
: Data for the N2 part

and the heat transferred from 300K to 4K as:
Q_radiation_300 A
H
T
300
4
T
4
4

_
,

HN
: Q_radiation_300 W

In this calculations we choose the smissiivity of the 4K stage to be bigger (5 times)
than that of the aluminum which is the material used for manufacturing of the more
of the parts on the cold plate. The reason for that is that we have to take in to account
that certain fraction of the incoming radiation is scattered or reflected inside the cold
plate. As it is expected the radiation heat inflow is quite substantial for the heat leak
from 300K. The result is strongly dependent on the choosen value for the emissivity.
1
2
2 2
A J
1 1
A J
1 1 2 , 1
A J F
2 2 1 , 2
A J F
4
1
T
4
2
T
( ) A
1 1
/ 1
( )
2 2 2
/ 1 A 2 , 1 1
/ 1 F A

Figure 4. Radiation heat transfer between two opaque surfaces and the equivalent
radiation network
- We take into account radiation shape factor
j i
F
,
introduced in [5]. It is defined as
the fraction of the radiation that leaves surface i and is incident on surface j. For
the two surfaces shown on Figure 4 the radiation leaving surface 1,
1
4
1 1
A T A J ,
which strikes surface 2 is denoted by
1 1 2 , 1
A J F .

Similar expression can be written for the radiation flow in opposite direction. In
general the heat transferred from surface 1 to surface 2 will be:
4
1 2 , 1 2
T A F q
incident

To estimate the radiation transferred from 300K to 4K we use the Radiation shape
factor between parallel disks given in [5]. We consider the opening as a diaphragm.
The nearest object on the cold plate is at 50mm. The luminance areas that correspond
to the angle between the nearest object at 4K and at 300K can be calculated with
simple geometry. In the worst case, when the gate valve is open and MSA looks
towards the scanner, the distance is 0.8m and the corresponding area will be 0.5m
2
.
The radiation shape chart gives 89 . 0
2 , 1
F . To easy the calculations we use the
radiation network approach introduced in [5]. For this case the radiation network is
given in Figure 5 and the heat transfer will be determined by:
( )
( ) ( ) [ ]
2 2 2 2 , 1 1 1 1 1
4
2
4
1
/ 1 / 1 / 1 A F A A
T T
Q

+ +

(3)
For the calculations we assume that the values for the emisivity similar to the
previous case emphasizing again on the fact that the result is quite dependent on the
chosen value:
W
T
300
4
T
4
4

_
,

1
1
( )

1
A
1

1
A
1
F
12

+
1
2
( )

2
A
H

m
2
A
H
A
H
d
H
0.5 ( )
2

1
]
Hboxl Hboxl + :
m Hboxl 25 10
3
: m d
H
28 10
3
:
Geometry of the openings

2
0.1 :
m
2
A
1
0.5 : F
12
0.89 :
1
0.8 :
4 300

We can made simple estimation of the volume helium boiled from such a heat inflow.
The heat of vaporization (latent heat) for liquid He at 4.2K is 25.10
3
J/kg. That gives
boiling rate of 0,84W/l. So that heat flow will boil off additional quantity of
0.075l/hour.

2. Conductance through cables and support structure.
For the coaxial and the DC cables we consider that the heat transfer is given by the
first term in equation (1):
1
]
1

x
T
T
dx
d
A Q ) ( (4)
Thus the heat transfer between the ends of a solid bar at temperatures
1
T and
2
T is:
T
x
T
T
dx
d
A
L
A
Q
T
T

1
]
1

2
1
) ( (5)
In case of metallic alloys, e.g. brass, German silver, stainless steel, available date
enable us to give a fairly accurate estimate of ) (T K at any temperature. In this case
we can perform simplified calculations with the mean heat conductivity
mK W T K / ), ( [4]. The heat transfer can be calculated simplified formula:
T K
L
A
Q .

Final results

Here are present only calculations for the heat leaks due to the different parts of the
coaxial cable. Due to lack of data for the mean conductivity in case of end
temperatures 20K and 4K we have used the data given in [4] for link between 77K
and 4K. These values will give higher heat leaks but we will be on the safe side
compensating for example bad thermal termination (anchoring) on the top of LHe
vessel. The calculated values are summarized in a Table 4 including an additional heat
flow to 4K stage from Joule heat. We use a value provided from SRON (Space
research Organisation of Netherlands). The Joule heat dissipated from the temperature
sensors is obtained from the LakeShore data sheets [2].
Additional Heat inflow
min max
Coaxial cable outside and conductor
(stainless steel parts total)
6.958E-3
Coaxial cables PTFE 1.285E-4
Coaxial cable Copper shell 1.52E-3
Coaxial cable Silver plating 9.24E-3
DC cables (total 56 wires) 0.0328
Contribution from the in door made
shields
0.05
Openings towards 300K 5.6E-3 0.063
Openings towards 77K 2.4E-5
Joule heat dissipated on the cold plate
from the MSA and Second IF
0.038
Joule heat dissipated from the
temperature sensors and DC wires.
~2E-4
Total 0.144W 0.207W
Table 4. Data for the heat leaks after the modifications.
Here we do not consider the heat transfer via the side supports because they will
influence on the boiling rate of the nitrogen. In the worst case when the gate valve is
open and the cold plate will look towards the scanner the heat leak of 0.207W will
crate additional boiling of 0.439 litres Helium which is quite substantial amount. The
heat load without electrical current and with closed openings is 0.1W. That value
agrees with the experimentally obtained holding time of 50 hours. It will be
interesting to verify with the holding time obtained when all the parts are installed on
the cold plate and the openings are not covered.

References:
[1] http://www.irlabs.com/
[2] http://www.lakeshore.com/temp/acc/am.html
[3]C. Sundblad , Calculation of heat transmission in cales, Project ODIN; Odin Cold
box, 950621
[4] White, Experimental techniques in low-temperature physics, Claredon Press,
Oxford, 1979.
[5] W.Schmidt, R. Henderson, C. Wolgemunt, Introduction to thermal sciences,
Wiley, 1993
Appendix A
Data for the cables used in the cryostat:

Coefficient of thermal
expansion
1.78 x 10
-5

Thermal conductivity 48 W/m K at 293 K
Electrical resistivity
(annealed)
1.15 x 10
-7
W-m at 293 K
Specific heat 376.4 J/ kg K
Stress relief temperature
(1 hour)
423 K to 498 K (150 C to 225 C)
Chemical composition 94.8% copper, 5% tin, 0.2% phosphorus
Table A1. DC cables specification

Thermal Conductivity
300K-77K 77K-4K
Cable outside diameter (OD) 2,2mm
Area OD 1,58mm
2

PTFE diametre 1,68mm
Area PTFE 2,01mm
2

Conductor OD 1,68mm
Area conductor 2,01mm
2

Copper shell OD 0,50mm
Area Cu shell 0,106mm
2

Silver plating 0,51mm
Area Silver plating 0,007931mm
2

Table A2. Data for UT-85-B-SS