The Simons Observatory: Production-level Fabrication of the Mid- and Ultra-High-Frequency Wafers

The Simons Observatory (SO) is a cosmic microwave background instrumentation suite in the Atacama Desert of Chile. More than 65,000 polarization-sensitive transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers will be fielded in the frequency range spanning 27 to 280 GHz, with three separate dichroic designs. The...

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Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Duff, Shannon M, Austermann, Jason, Beall, James A, Daniel, David P, Hubmayr, Johannes, Jaehnig, Greg C, Johnson, Bradley R, Jones, Dante, Link, Michael J, Lucas, Tammy J, Sonka, Rita F, Staggs, Suzanne T, Ullom, Joel, Wang, Yuhan
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 27.03.2024
Subjects
Arrays
Bolometers
Cosmic microwave background
Focal plane
Frequency ranges
Modules
Observatories
Prototyping
Sensors
Wafers
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Summary:The Simons Observatory (SO) is a cosmic microwave background instrumentation suite in the Atacama Desert of Chile. More than 65,000 polarization-sensitive transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers will be fielded in the frequency range spanning 27 to 280 GHz, with three separate dichroic designs. The mid-frequency 90/150 GHz and ultra-high-frequency 220/280 GHz detector arrays, fabricated at NIST, account for 39 of 49 total detector modules and implement the feedhorn-fed orthomode transducer (OMT)-coupled TES bolometer architecture. A robust production-level fabrication framework for these detector arrays and the monolithic DC/RF routing wafers has been developed, which includes single device prototyping, process monitoring techniques, in-process metrology, and cryogenic measurements of critical film properties. Application of this framework has resulted in timely delivery of nearly 100 total superconducting focal plane components to SO with 88% of detector wafers meeting nominal criteria for integration into a detector module: a channel yield > 95% and Tc in the targeted range.
ISSN:2331-8422