<title>Receivers for ALMA: preliminary design concepts</title>

Abstract

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a joint project between Europe and the U.S. and at present in its design and development phase, is a major new ground based telescope facility for millimeter and submillimeter astronomy. Its huge collecting area (7000 m<SUP>2</SUP>), sensitive receivers and location at one of the driest sites on Earth will make it a unique instrument. We present preliminary design concepts for the overall receiver configuration. Optics and cryostat design concepts from OSO, OVRO, RAL, IRAM, NRAO and SRON and their main features are described.