Cryogenic environment and performance for testing the Planck radiometers

This paper is part of the Prelaunch status LFI papers published on JINST: this http URL The Planck LFI Radiometer Chain Assemblies (RCAs) have been calibrated in two dedicated cryogenic facilities. In this paper the facilities and the related instrumentation are described. The main satellite thermal interfaces for the single chains have to be reproduced and stability requirements have to be satisfied. Setup design, problems occurred and improving solutions implemented are discussed. Performance of the cryogenic setup are reported.