Design and Fabrication of Two-Dimensional Superconducting Bolometer Arrays
Abstract
Large format, two dimensional arrays of close-packed bolometers will enable submillimeter cameras and spectrometers to obtain images and spectra orders of magnitude faster than present instruments. The South Pole Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer (SPIFI) for the AST/RO observatory and the Submillimeter and Far-InfraRed Experiment (SAFIRE) on the SOFIA airborne observatory will employ a large-format, two-dimensional, close-packed bolometer arrays. Both these instruments are imaging Fabry-Perot spectrometers operating at wavelengths between 100μm and 700μm. The array format is 16×32 pixels, using a 32-element multiplexer developed in part for this purpose. The low backgrounds achieved in spectroscopy require very sensitive detectors with NEPs of order 5·10-18 W/√Hz. Superconducting detectors can be close-packed using the Pop-Up Detector (PUD) format, and SQUID multiplexers operating at the detector bas temperature can be intimately coupled to them. We have fabricated and assembled an engineering model array of close-packed bolometers with a multiplexed readout that features a very compact, modular approach for large format arrays.
- Publication:
-
Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors for Astronomy
- Pub Date:
- February 2003
- DOI:
- 10.1117/12.459424
- Bibcode:
- 2003SPIE.4855..552B