Bolometer arrays for Mm/Submm astronomy (original) (raw)
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Development of Large Bolometer Arrays for Submillimeter and Millimeter Astronomy
2008 Global Symposium on Millimeter Waves, 2008
Access to new microelectronics facilities allows the development of large bolometer arrays for astronomy. The expected sensitivity increase is the key for the next generation of cameras at the focal plane of submillimeter and millimeter telescopes. We present here the research led in France in this domain.
Antenna-Coupled Bolometer Arrays for Astrophysics
Bolometers offer the best sensitivity in the far-infrared to millimeter-wave region of the electromagnetic spectrum. We are developing arrays of feedhorn-coupled bolometers for the ESA/NASA Planck Surveyor and Herschel Space Observatory. Advances in the format and sensitivity of bolometric focal plane array enables future astrophysics mission opportunities, such as CMB polarimetry and far-infrared/submillimeter spectral line surveys. Compared to bolometers with extended area radiation absorbers, antenna-coupled bolometers offer active volumes that are orders of magnitude smaller. Coupled to lithographed micro-strip filters and antennas, antenna-coupled bolometer arrays allow flexible focal plane architectures specialized for imaging, polarimetry, and spectroscopy. These architectures greatly reduce the mass of sub-Kelvin bolometer focal planes that drive the design of bolometric instrumentation.
Two bolometer Arrays for far-infrared and submillimeter astronomy
Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors For Astronomy Ii, 2004
We describe the development, construction, and testing of two 384 element arrays of ion-implanted semiconducting cryogenic bolometers designed for use in far-infrared and submillimeter cameras. These two dimensional arrays are assembled from a number of 32 element linear arrays of monolithic Pop-Up bolometer Detectors (PUD) developed at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. PUD technology allows the construction of large, high filling factor, arrays that make efficient use of available focal plane area in far-infrared and submillimeter astronomical instruments. Such arrays can be used to provide a significant increase in mapping speed over smaller arrays. A prototype array has been delivered and integrated into a ground-based camera, the Submillimeter High Angular Resolution Camera (SHARC II), a facility instrument at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). A second array has recently been delivered for integration into the High-resolution Airborne Widebandwidth Camera (HAWC), a far-infrared imaging camera for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). HAWC is scheduled for commissioning in 2005.
Bolometer arrays development in the DCMB French collaboration
Proceedings of SPIE, …, 2008
Bolometers cooled to very low temperature are currently the most sensitive detectors for low spectral resolution detection of millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths. The best performances of the state-of-the-art bolometers allow to reach sensitivities below the photon noise of the Cosmic Microwave Background for example. Since 2003, a french R&D effort called DCMB ("Développement Concerté de Matrices de Bolomètres") has been organised between different laboratories to develop large bolometers arrays for astrophysics observations. Funded by CNES and CNRS, it is intended to get a coherent set of competences and equipments to develop very cold bolometers arrays by microfabrication. Two parallel developments have been made in this collaboration based on the NbSi alloy either semi-conductive or superconducting depending on the proportion of Nb. Multiplexing schemes have been developed and demonstrated for these two options. I will present the latest developments made in the DCMB collaboration and future prospects.
The MPIR 100mK bolometer array for 2mm continuum observations
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2000
We are developing bolometer arrays for continuum detection in millimeter and submillimeter astronomy . For the 2 mm atmospheric window, where the transmission is comparatively high, a bolometer temperature of about 100 mK is necessary in order to avoid being limited by the system noise. Our new 2 mm array is cooled by a He/He-dilution refrigerator with a base temperature of 30 mK. The substrate for the 19 channel bolometer array consists of a singlecrystal silicon wafer with silicon-nitride membranes. Radiation is collected by a single-mode horn array in front of the wafer and coupled into e$cient absorbers in the center of the membranes. Resulting temperature changes of the absorbers are measured with NTD-germanium thermistors. In the "rst stage of the read out electronics, we use JFETs working at 150 K. Cold RF-"lters prevent RF interference from entering the bolometer array cavity. The combination of several mesh "lters and a short piece of cylindrical waveguide at the end of each horn de"nes the bandpass for the incoming radiation, which is matched to the 2 mm atmospheric window.
Bolometer arrays development in the DCMB French collaboration
Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IV, 2008
Bolometers cooled to very low temperature are currently the most sensitive detectors for low spectral resolution detection of millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths. The best performances of the state-of-the-art bolometers allow to reach sensitivities below the photon noise of the Cosmic Microwave Background for example. Since 2003, a french R&D effort called DCMB ("Développement Concerté de Matrices de Bolomètres") has been organised between different laboratories to develop large bolometers arrays for astrophysics observations. Funded by CNES and CNRS, it is intended to get a coherent set of competences and equipments to develop very cold bolometers arrays by microfabrication. Two parallel developments have been made in this collaboration based on the NbSi alloy either semi-conductive or superconducting depending on the proportion of Nb. Multiplexing schemes have been developed and demonstrated for these two options. I will present the latest developments made in the DCMB collaboration and future prospects.
HERSCHEL—PACS Bolometer Arrays for Submillimeter Ground-Based Telescopes
Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 2008
The Herschel Space Observatory will carry onboard a new kind of bolometric architecture for the PACS 1 submillimeter photometer. These new generation CCD-like multiplexed bolometer arrays are buttable and enable the conception of large fully sampled focal planes either for space or for ground-based telescopes. We present here some development for ground-based applications in the context of the ARTEMIS 2 project. We have developed an electro-thermal numerical model that simulates the performances of these semiconducting bolometers under specific ground-based conditions (different wavelengths and background powers for example). This model permits to determine the optimal parameters for each condition and shows that the bolometers can be background limited in each atmospheric transmission window between 200 and 450 microns. We also describe the optical system that provides a high optical efficiency in each submillimeter atmospheric window. Astronomical observations made with a prototype on the APEX telescope are presented.
1996
We have constructed a bolometer array camera optimized for the 350 gm and 450 gm atmospheric windows for the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). The detectors are inicromachined monolithic silicon thermal bolometers cooled to 300 inK by a 3 He refrigerator. They form a close-packed linear array of 24 bolome,ters which provide Nyquist sampling of the diffraction pattern from the CSO in a strip 10"x2 1 on the sky. The bolotneters achieve a Noise Equivalent Power of 5-10' W/4717, which is approximately background limited in good Mauna Kea weather. Liquid Helium cooled optics provide the aperture and field stops and reimage the sky onto the bolometer array, eliminating the need for Winston cones. The total optical efficiency of the camera is .10%. Several successful runs at the CSO have proven the ability of this instrument to allow significantly better and faster mapping of astronomical sources than was previously possible.
Bolometric Arrays for Millimeter Wavelengths
2009
During last years, semiconductor bolometers using thin films have been developed at INAOE, specifically boron-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon films. The characteristics shown by these devices made them attractive to be used in astronomical instrumentation, mainly in two-dimentional arrays. These detector arrays used at the Large Millimeter Telescope will make possible to obtain astronomical images in millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths. With this in mind, we are developing a method to produce, with enough reliability, bolometer arrays at INAOE. Until now, silicon nitride diaphragm arrays, useful as radiation absorbers, have succesfully been obtained. Sizes going from one to four millimeter by element in a consistent way; however we have not tested thermometers and metallic contact deposition yet. At the same time, we are working on two possible configurations for the readout electronics; one of them using commercial components while the other will be an integrated circuit...