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Completed TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 3)
The limits of modern high precision cosmology and astrophysics are defined in large part by limitations in detector technology andthe warm electronics required to read out those sensors. With further development, microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs)could provide a way of greatly simplifying detector layout and readout compared to other technologies while maintaining excellentsensitivity for a variety of science instruments in the far-infrared, millimeter, and sub-millimeter wavelength ranges. I will advancethe technological readiness of MKIDs along two avenues. First, I will optimize MKIDs for extremely low power loading by developingdetector arrays for use on the Epoch of Reionization Spectrometer (EoR-Spec) instrument on the CCAT Collaboration's upcomingFred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST). By testing detector sensitivities and properties in the lab and deploying this instrument,I will accomplish the first on-sky demonstration of MKIDs in a low-loading environment like those encountered by space-based MKIDexperiments. Second, I will improve our understanding of the various sources of noise in the MKID arrays and readout electronicsby integrating the MKIDs with the RFSoC and SMuRF readout systems and comparing their performances in the lab. This workwill increase the number of detectors that fit on a wafer and improve the power limits of MKID-based devices, laying the foundationfor dramatic improvements in such technologies for future NASA missions and other experimental cosmology projects. With thetechnologies that I propose to develop, we will be able to better study the physics of inflation, the formation of the first stars, and theevolution of galaxies throughout the universe.
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