Development of an On-Chip Integrated Spectrometer for FIR Wavelengths

Spectral measurements in the far-IR are a direct probe of the fuel for cosmic structure formation on all scales. Far-IR spectroscopic observations typically require access to space due to the absorption and emission of Earth's atmosphere, requiring spectrometers to be light and small. We are developing a novel spectrometer-on-a-chip design for the 100-200 um wavelength range. We will employ a filter bank architecture built from vacuum waveguide etched into a silicon wafer, feeding an array of superconducting kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs). This compact architecture enables operation above the loss cutoff of traditional superconducting transmission lines and will enable transformational decreases in the weight and volume of space-based imaging spectrometers. In this poster, we present our proposed spectrometer architecture, including simulations of the system's performance using real material properties and waveguide designs.