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Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XI

A millimeter-wave on-chip superconducting filter bank spectrometer for atmospheric science

A. Orlando, Chris Thomas, D. J. Goldie, Peter Hargrave, Rashmi V. Sudiwala, Prateek Kumar Dongre, S. Withington

Published Dec 12, 2020• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We present an on-chip superconducting filter bank spectrometer based on transition-edge sensors (TES) as a technology for realising a microwave atmospheric sounding instrument with several hundred channels and sky- noise limited performance. Each device consists of a wideband feed coupled to a transmission line filter bank, with a TES behind each filter. In the first instance we have targeted atmospheric temperature sounding using the oxygen (O2) absorption line at 60 GHz, however the device is being scaled to 180 GHz for humidity sounding. The technology developed is also generally applicable to astronomical instrumentation. We have fabricated a set of test devices to demonstrate key device technologies, such as channel placement, spectral resolution and sensitivity. We will describe device design, test configuration and results.

DOI
10.1117/12.2564383

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The opacity due to water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere obscures portions of the sub-THz spectrum (mm/sub-mm wavelengths) to ground based astronomical observation. For maximum sensitivity, instruments operating at these wavelengths must be designed to have spectral responses that match the available windows in the atmospheric transmission that occur in between the strong water absorption lines. Traditionally, the spectral response of mm/sub-mm instruments has been set using optical, metal-mesh bandpass filters [1]. An alternative method for defining the passbands, available when using superconducting detectors coupled with planar antennas, is to use on-chip, superconducting filters [2]. This paper presents the design and testing of superconducting, lumped element, on-chip bandpass filters (BPFs), placed inline with the microstrip connecting the antenna and the detector, covering the frequency range from 209-416 GHz. Four filters were designed with pass bands 209-274 GHz, 265-315 GHz, 335-361 GHz and 397-416 GHz corresponding to the atmospheric transmission windows. Fourier transform spectroscopy was used to verify that the spectral response of the BPFs is well predicted by the computer simulations. Two-color operation of the pixels was demonstrated by connecting two detectors to a single broadband antenna through two BPFs. Scalability of the design to multiple (four) colors is discussed.
Superconducting integrated circuits (SICs) represent a natural step forward for devices operating at frequencies from microwave up to sub-millimeter wavelengths. They offer massive miniaturization via compact design based on low-loss superconducting transmission lines. At sub-millimeter wavelengths, the development of SICs is driven by astronomical instruments where it could allow the realization of an imaging spectrometer, combining simultaneous imaging and spectroscopy capabilities into a single instrument analogous to integral field units in the infrared and optical regimes. Such an imaging spectrometer can be achieved with SICs by integrating the required elements, such as spectral filters and polarizers, with the detectors onto a single chip. Without this integration, the dispersive system for even a single spatial pixel at these wavelengths would be prohibitively large and could not be realistically scaled up to allow imaging. Astronomical signals are exceedingly weak, typically requiring many nights of exposure to get a good signal to noise ratio. It is therefore imperative that the instrument has minimal losses before its detectors. As a consequence, the losses of each element in the SIC needs to be minimized, which requires careful characterization of the individual elements, including antenna, filters, detectors and connecting transmission lines. The primary focus of this thesis lies on the experimental characterization of the wideband antenna and the low-loss superconducting transmission lines.
Abstract Superconducting on-chip filter banks provide a scalable, space saving solution to create imaging spectrometers at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths. We present an easy to realise, lithographed superconducting filter design with a high tolerance to fabrication error. Using a capacitively coupled λ/2\lambda /2λ/2 λ / 2 microstrip resonator to define a narrow ( λ/Δλ=300\lambda /\Delta \lambda = 300λ/Δλ=300 λ / Δ λ = 300 ) spectral pass band, the filtered output of a given spectrometer channel directly connects to a lumped-element kinetic inductance detector. We show the tolerance analysis of our design, demonstrating <11%<11\%<11% < 11 % change in filter quality factor to any one realistic fabrication error and a full filter-bank efficiency forecast to be 50% after accounting for fabrication errors and dielectric loss tangent.