The third-generation South Pole Telescope camera (SPT-3G) improves upon its predecessor (SPTpol) by an order of magnitude increase in detectors on the focal plane. The technology used to read out and control these detectors, digital frequency-domain multiplexing (DfMUX), is conceptually the same as used for SPTpol, but extended to accommodate more detectors. A nearly 5× expansion in the readout operating bandwidth has enabled the use of this large focal plane, and SPT-3G performance meets the forecasting targets relevant to its science objectives. However, the electrical dynamics of the higher-bandwidth readout differ from predictions based on models of the SPTpol system due to the higher frequencies used and parasitic impedances associated with new cryogenic electronic architecture. To address this, we present an updated derivation for electrical crosstalk in higher-bandwidth DfMUX systems and identify two previously uncharacterized contributions to readout noise, which become dominant at high bias frequency. The updated crosstalk and noise models successfully describe the measured crosstalk and readout noise performance of SPT-3G. These results also suggest specific changes to warm electronics component values, wire-harness properties, and SQUID parameters, to improve the readout system for future experiments using DfMUX, such as the LiteBIRD space telescope.
The third generation South Pole Telescope camera (SPT-3G) improves over its predecessor (SPTpol) by an order of magnitude increase in detector number. The technology used to read out and control these detectors, digital frequency-domain multiplexing (DfMUX), is conceptually the same as used for SPTpol, but extended to accommodate more detectors. A nearly 5x expansion in the readout operating bandwidth has enabled the use of this large focal plane, and SPT-3G performance meets the forecasting targets relevant to its science objectives. However, the electrical dynamics of the higher-bandwidth system depart in significant ways from the characterization and models drawn from the previous generation of cameras. We present an updated derivation for electrical crosstalk in higher-bandwidth DfMUX systems, and identify two previously uncharacterized contributions to readout noise. The updated crosstalk and noise models successfully describe the measured crosstalk and readout noise performance of SPT-3G, and suggest improvements to the readout system for future experiments using DfMUX, such as the LiteBIRD satellite.
The SPT-3G receiver was commissioned in early 2017 on the 10-meter South Pole Telescope (SPT) to map anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). New optics, detector, and readout technologies have yielded a multichroic, high-resolution, low-noise camera with impressive throughput and sensitivity, offering the potential to improve our understanding of inflationary physics, astroparticle physics, and growth of structure. We highlight several key features and design principles of the new receiver, and summarize its performance to date.
The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a millimeter-wavelength telescope designed for high-precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The SPT measures both the temperature and polarization of the CMB with a large aperture, resulting in high resolution maps sensitive to signals across a wide range of angular scales on the sky. With these data, the SPT has the potential to make a broad range of cosmological measurements. These include constraining the effect of massive neutrinos on large-scale structure formation as well as cleaning galactic and cosmological foregrounds from CMB polarization data in future searches for inflationary gravitational waves. The SPT began observing in January 2017 with a new receiver (SPT-3G) containing ~16,000 polarization-sensitive transition-edge sensor bolometers. Several key technology developments have enabled this large-format focal plane, including advances in detectors, readout electronics, and large millimeter-wavelength optics. We discuss the implementation of these technologies in the SPT-3G receiver as well as the challenges they presented. In late 2017 the implementations of all three of these technologies were modified to optimize total performance. Here, we present the current instrument status of the SPT-3G receiver.
The third-generation instrument for the 10-meter South Pole Telescope, SPT-3G, was first installed in January 2017. In addition to completely new cryostats, secondary telescope optics, and readout electronics, the number of detectors in the focal plane has increased by an order of magnitude from previous instruments to ~16,000. The SPT-3G focal plane consists of ten detector modules, each with an array of 269 trichroic, polarization-sensitive pixels on a six-inch silicon wafer. Within each pixel is a broadband, dual-polarization sinuous antenna; the signal from each orthogonal linear polarization is divided into three frequency bands centered at 95, 150, and 220 GHz by in-line lumped element filters and transmitted via superconducting microstrip to Ti/Au transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers. Properties of the TES film, microstrip filters, and bolometer island must be tightly controlled to achieve optimal performance. For the second year of SPT-3G operation, we have replaced all ten wafers in the focal plane with new detector arrays tuned to increase mapping speed and improve overall performance. Here we discuss the TES superconducting transition temperature and normal resistance, detector saturation power, bandpasses, optical efficiency, and full array yield for the 2018 focal plane.
Digital frequency multiplexing (dfMux) is a readout architecture for transition edge sensor-based detector arrays and is used on telescopes including SPT-3G, POLARBEAR-2, and LiteBIRD. Here, we present recent progress and plans for development of a sub-Kelvin SQUID architecture for digital frequency multiplexed bolometers. This scheme moves the SQUID from the 4K stage to the 250mK stage, adjacent to the bolometers. Operating the SQUID on the detector stage may offer lower noise and greater scalability. Electrical performance will be improved as a result of decreased wiring length and reduced parasitics, allowing for higher multiplexing factors and lower bolometer Rnormal. These performance improvements will enable ultra-large focal planes for future instruments such as CMB-S4.
POLARBEAR is a cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiment located in the Atacama desert in Chile. The science goals of the POLARBEAR project are to do a deep search for CMB B-mode polarization created by inflationary gravitational waves, as well as characterize the CMB B-mode signal from gravitational lensing. POLARBEAR-1 started observations in 2012, and the POLARBEAR team has published a series of results from its first two seasons of observations, including the first measurement of a non-zero B-mode polarization angular power spectrum, measured at sub-degree scales where the dominant signal is gravitational lensing of the CMB. The Simons Array expands POLARBEAR to include an additional two telescopes with next-generation POLARBEAR-2 multi-chroic receivers, observing at 95, 150, 220, and 270 GHz.
The POLARBEAR-2A focal plane has 7,588 transition-edge sensor bolometers, read out with frequency-division multiplexing, with 40 frequency channels within the readout bandwidth of 1.5 to 4.5 MHz. The frequency channels are defined by a low-loss lithographed aluminum spiral inductor and interdigitated capacitor in series with each bolometer, creating a resonant frequency for each channel's unique voltage bias and current readout. Characterization of the readout includes measuring resonant peak locations and heights and fitting to a circuit model both above and below the bolometer superconducting transition temperature. This information is used determine the optimal detector bias frequencies and characterize stray impedances which may affect bolometer operation and stability. The detector electrical characterization includes measurements of the transition properties by sweeping in temperature and in voltage bias, measurements of the bolometer saturation power, as well as measuring and removing any biases introduced by the readout circuit. We present results from the characterization, tuning, and operation of the fully integrated focal plane and readout for the first POLARBEAR-2 receiver, POLARBEAR-2A, during its pre-deployment integration run.
The desire for higher sensitivity has driven ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments to employ ever larger focal planes, which in turn require larger reimaging optics. Practical limits to the maximum size of these optics motivates the development of quasi-optically-coupled (lenslet-coupled), multi-chroic detectors. These detectors can be sensitive across a broader bandwidth compared to waveguide-coupled detectors. However, the increase in bandwidth comes at a cost: the lenses (up to ~700 mm diameter) and lenslets (~5 mm diameter, hemispherical lenses on the focal plane) used in these systems are made from high-refractive-index materials (such as silicon or amorphous aluminum oxide) that reflect nearly a third of the incident radiation. In order to maximize the faint CMB signal that reaches the detectors, the lenses and lenslets must be coated with an anti-reflective (AR) material. The AR coating must maximize radiation transmission in scientifically interesting bands and be cryogenically stable. Such a coating was developed for the third generation camera, SPT-3G, of the South Pole Telescope (SPT) experiment, but the materials and techniques used in the development are general to AR coatings for mm-wave optics. The three-layer polytetra uoroethylene-based AR coating is broadband, inexpensive, and can be manufactured with simple tools. The coating is field tested; AR coated focal plane elements were deployed in the 2016-2017 austral summer and AR coated reimaging optics were deployed in 2017-2018.
QUBIC, the Q & U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology, is a novel ground-based instrument that aims to measure the extremely faint B-mode polarisation anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background at intermediate angular scales (multipoles of 𝑙 = 30 − 200). Primordial B-modes are a key prediction of Inflation as they can only be produced by gravitational waves in the very early universe. To achieve this goal, QUBIC will use bolometric interferometry, a technique that combines the sensitivity of an imager with the immunity to systematic effects of an interferometer. It will directly observe the sky through an array of back-to-back entry horns whose beams will be superimposed using a cooled quasioptical beam combiner. Images of the resulting interference fringes will be formed on two focal planes, each tiled with transition-edge sensors, cooled down to 320 mK. A dichroic filter placed between the optical combiner and the focal planes will select two frequency bands (centred at 150 GHz and 220 GHz), one frequency per focal plane. Polarization modulation will be achieved using a cold stepped half-wave plate (HWP) and polariser in front of the sky-facing horns.
The full QUBIC instrument is described elsewhere1,2,3,4; in this paper we will concentrate in particular on simulations of the optical combiner (an off-axis Gregorian imager) and the feedhorn array. We model the optical performance of both the QUBIC full module and a scaled-down technological demonstrator which will be used to validate the full instrument design. Optical modelling is carried out using full vector physical optics with a combination of commercial and in-house software. In the high-frequency channel we must be careful to consider the higher-order modes that can be transmitted by the horn array. The instrument window function is used as a measure of performance and we investigate the effect of, for example, alignment and manufacturing tolerances, truncation by optical components and off-axis aberrations. We also report on laboratory tests carried on the QUBIC technological demonstrator in advance of deployment to the observing site in Argentina.
QUBIC, the Q & U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology, is a novel ground-based instrument that has been designed to measure the extremely faint B-mode polarisation anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background at intermediate angular scales (multipoles of 𝑙 = 30 − 200). Primordial B-modes are a key prediction of Inflation as they can only be produced by gravitational waves in the very early universe. To achieve this goal, QUBIC will use bolometric interferometry, a technique that combines the sensitivity of an imager with the systematic error control of an interferometer. It will directly observe the sky through an array of 400 back-to-back entry horns whose signals will be superimposed using a quasi-optical beam combiner. The resulting interference fringes will be imaged at 150 and 220 GHz on two focal planes, each tiled with NbSi Transition Edge Sensors, cooled to 320 mK and read out with time-domain multiplexing. A dichroic filter placed between the optical combiner and the focal planes will select the two frequency bands. A very large receiver cryostat will cool the optical and detector stages to 40 K, 4 K, 1 K and 320 mK using two pulse tube coolers, a novel 4He sorption cooler and a double-stage 3He/4He sorption cooler. Polarisation modulation and selection will be achieved using a cold stepped half-wave plate (HWP) and polariser, respectively, in front of the sky-facing horns. A key feature of QUBIC’s ability to control systematic effects is its ‘self-calibration’ mode where fringe patterns from individual equivalent baselines can be compared. When observing, however, all the horns will be open simultaneously and we will recover a synthetic image of the sky in the I, Q and U Stokes’ parameters. The synthesised beam pattern has a central peak of approximately 0.5 degrees in width, with secondary peaks further out that are damped by the 13-degree primary beam of the horns. This is Module 1 of QUBIC which will be installed in Argentina, near the city of San Antonio de los Cobres, at the Alto Chorrillos site (4869 m a.s.l.), Salta Province. Simulations have shown that this first module could constrain the tensor-to-scalar ratio down to σ(r) = 0.01 after a two-year survey. We aim to add further modules in the future to increase the angular sensitivity and resolution of the instrument. The QUBIC project is proceeding through a sequence of steps. After an initial successful characterisation of the detection chain, a technological demonstrator is being assembled to validate the full instrument design and to test it electrically, thermally and optically.
The technical demonstrator is a scaled-down version of Module 1 in terms of the number of detectors, input horns and pulse tubes and a reduction in the diameter of the combiner mirrors and filters, but is otherwise similar. The demonstrator will be upgraded to the full module in 2019. In this paper we give an overview of the QUBIC project and instrument.
QUBIC, the QU Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology, is a novel forthcoming instrument to measure the B-mode polarization anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The detection of the B-mode signal will be extremely challenging; QUBIC has been designed to address this with a novel approach, namely bolometric interferometry. The receiver cryostat is exceptionally large and cools complex optical and detector stages to 40 K, 4 K, 1 K and 350 mK using two pulse tube coolers, a novel 4He sorption cooler and a double-stage 3He/4He sorption cooler. We discuss the thermal and mechanical design of the cryostat, modelling and thermal analysis, and laboratory cryogenic testing.
QUBIC (the Q and U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology) is a ground-based experiment which seeks to improve the current constraints on the amplitude of primordial gravitational waves. It exploits the unique technique, among Cosmic Microwave Background experiments, of bolometric interferometry, combining together the sensitivity of bolometric detectors with the control of systematic effects typical of interferometers. QUBIC will perform sky observations in polarization, in two frequency bands centered at 150 and 220 GHz, with two kilo-pixel focal plane arrays of NbSi Transition-Edge Sensors (TES) cooled down to 350 mK. A subset of the QUBIC instrument, the so called QUBIC Technological Demonstrator (TD), with a reduced number of detectors with respect to the full instrument, will be deployed and commissioned before the end of 2018.
The voltage-biased TES are read out with Time Domain Multiplexing and an unprecedented multiplexing (MUX) factor equal to 128. This MUX factor is reached with two-stage multiplexing: a traditional one exploiting Superconducting QUantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) at 1K and a novel SiGe Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) at 60 K. The former provides a MUX factor of 32, while the latter provides a further 4. Each TES array is composed of 256 detectors and read out with four modules of 32 SQUIDs and two ASICs. A custom software synchronizes and manages the readout and detector operation, while the TES are sampled at 780 Hz (100kHz/128 MUX rate).
In this work we present the experimental characterization of the QUBIC TES arrays and their multiplexing readout chain, including time constant, critical temperature, and noise properties.
Remnant radiation from the early universe, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), has been redshifted and cooled, and today has a blackbody spectrum peaking at millimetre wavelengths. The QUBIC (Q&U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology) instrument is designed to map the very faint polaristion structure in the CMB. QUBIC is based on the novel concept of bolometric interferometry in conjunction with synthetic imaging. It will have a large array of input feedhorns, which creates a large number of interferometric baselines.
The beam from each feedhorn is passed through an optical combiner, with an off-axis compensated Gregorian design, to allow the generation of the synthetic image. The optical-combiner will operate in two frequency bands (150 and 220 GHz with 25% and 18.2 % bandwidth respectively) while cryogenically cooled TES bolometers provide the sensitivity required at the image plane.
The QUBIC Technical Demonstrator (TD), a proof of technology instrument that contains 64 input feed-horns, is currently being built and will be installed in the Alto Chorrillos region of Argentina. The plan is then for the full QUBIC instrument (400 feed-horns) to be deployed in Argentina and obtain cosmologically significant results.
In this paper we will examine the output of the manufactered feed-horns in comparison to the nominal design. We will show the results of optical modelling that has been performed in anticipation of alignment and calibration of the TD in Paris, in particular testing the validity of real laboratory environments. We show the output of large calibrator sources (50 ° full width haf max Gaussian beams) and the importance of accurate mirror definitions when modelling large beams. Finally we describe the tolerance on errors of the position and orientation of mirrors in the optical combiner.
Big Bang cosmologies predict that the cosmic microwave background (CMB) contains faint temperature and polarisation
anisotropies imprinted in the early universe. ESA's PLANCK satellite has already measured the temperature
anisotropies1 in exquisite detail; the next ambitious step is to map the primordial polarisation signatures which are
several orders of magnitude lower. Polarisation E-modes have been measured2 but the even-fainter primordial B-modes
have so far eluded detection. Their magnitude is unknown but it is clear that a sensitive telescope with exceptional
control over systematic errors will be required.
QUBIC3 is a ground-based European experiment that aims to exploit the novel concept of bolometric interferometry in
order to measure B-mode polarisation anisotropies in the CMB. Beams from an aperture array of corrugated horns will
be combined to form a synthesised image of the sky Stokes parameters on two focal planes: one at 150 GHz the other at
220 GHz. In this paper we describe recent optical modelling of the QUBIC beam combiner, concentrating on modelling
the instrument point-spread-function and its operation in the 220-GHz band. We show the effects of optical aberrations
and truncation as successive components are added to the beam path. In the case of QUBIC, the aberrations introduced
by off-axis mirrors are the dominant contributor. As the frequency of operation is increased, the aperture horns allow up to five hybrid modes to propagate and we illustrate how the beam pattern changes across the 25% bandwidth. Finally we
describe modifications to the QUBIC optical design to be used in a technical demonstrator, currently being manufactured
for testing in 2016.
Kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) are a promising technology for low-noise, highly-multiplexible mm- and submm-wave detection. KIDs have a number of advantages over other detector technologies, which make them an appealing option in the cosmic microwave background B-mode anisotropy search, including passive frequency domain multiplexing and relatively simple fabrication, but have suffered from challenges associated with noise control. Here we describe design and fabrication of a 20-pixel prototype array of lumped element molybdenum KIDs. We show Q, frequency and temperature measurements from the array under dark conditions. We also present evidence for a double superconducting gap in molybdenum.
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