Design, realization, and characteristics of a transition edge bolometer for sub-millimeter wave astronomy

Rev Sci Instrum. 2012 Nov;83(11):114502. doi: 10.1063/1.4764581.

Abstract

The large array bolometer camera is scheduled to succeed its semiconducting predecessor at the Atacama pathfinder experiment. It shall be an array of 300 transition edge sensors operated at a temperature of about 0.25 K, provided by a (3)He evaporation cooler and a pulse tube refrigerator. The instrument will be read out by a superconducting quantum interference device time domain multiplexer. The design and realization of a suitable detector for this instrument is described. Based on sensitivity demands derived from the background limit, the thermal and electrical designs for a spider-web bolometer are deduced. The theoretical predictions are compared to experimental results. The pixel design yields a background-limited performance for background loads corresponding to blackbody sources between 77 K and 300 K and a partially effective anti-aliasing filter for the intended multiplexed readout.