Measuring the Noise Figure of a Cooled Broadband Radio Astronomy Receiver

A method for measuring the noise figure of a radioastronomical receiver at low temperatures achieved by using a compact Stirling-type cooler is presented. The proposed method combines the classical scalar Y-factor method with measurements of the S-parameters of receiver scattering matrix using a vector network analyzer. The results of measuring the receiver noise figure and S-parameters in the frequency band from 3 to 18 GHz and in the temperature range from 300 K to 148 K are given