A superconducting bolometer camera for APEX

N. Jethava; E. Kreysa; G. Siringo; W. Esch; H.-P. Gemünd; T. May; S. Anders; L. Fritzsch; R. Boucher; V. Zakosarenko; H.-G. Meyer

doi:10.1117/12.671255

27 June 2006 A superconducting bolometer camera for APEX

N. Jethava, E. Kreysa, G. Siringo, W. Esch, H.-P. Gemünd, T. May, S. Anders, L. Fritzsch, R. Boucher, V. Zakosarenko, H.-G. Meyer

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6275, Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy III; 62751A (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.671255
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2006, Orlando, Florida , United States

Abstract

We present the experimental results of voltage-biased superconducting bolometers (VSB) on silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) membranes with niobium wiring developed in collaboration between the Institut fur Physikalische Hochtechnologie (IPHT), Jena, Germany and the Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie (MPIfR), Bonn, Germany. The bolometer current is measured with the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), and as expected, the current responsivity is proportional to the inverse of the bias voltage. The experiments were performed with bilayer gold-palladium molybdenum thermistor at 300 mK ³He cooled cryostat and the desired transition temperature of T_c = 450 mK is achieved. The strong negative electro-thermal feedback of the VSB maintains the constant bolometer temperature and reduces the response time from 4 ms to 100 μs. We have tested thermistors of various size and shape on a continuous membrane and achieved a noise equivalent power (NEP) of 3.5 × 10^-16 W/√Hz. The measured NEP is relatively high due to the comparatively high background and high thermal conductance of the unstructured silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) membrane. We have fabricated 8-leg spider structured membranes in three different geometries and the relation between the geometry and the thermal conductance (G) is studied. Using the COSMOS finite element analysis tool, we have modeled the TES bolometers to determine the thermal conductance for different geometries and calculated the various parameters. Due to the demands of large number pixel bolometer camera we plan to implement multiplex readout with integrated SQUIDs in our design.

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N. Jethava, E. Kreysa, G. Siringo, W. Esch, H.-P. Gemünd, T. May, S. Anders, L. Fritzsch, R. Boucher, V. Zakosarenko, and H.-G. Meyer "A superconducting bolometer camera for APEX", Proc. SPIE 6275, Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy III, 62751A (27 June 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.671255

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