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Completed TRL 3
Application of Kinetic Inductance Detection approach to construct sensitive, highly-multiplexed imaging detectors for millimeter wavelengths. This will enable the next generation of submillimeter/millimeter projects and missions for astrophysics and cosmology.
Future submillimeter/millimeter instruments for astrophysics and cosmology demand focal planes with many thousands of sensitive detectors which can be accomodated within cooling and power limits. Kinetic Inductance Detectors allow construction of such focal planes with large multiplexing factors and minimal circuitry within the cryogenic focal plane. This project investigated aluminum-based KIDs in prototype small detector arrays, confirming viability of this approach for future detector arrays.
The target NASA missions for the Kinetic Inductance Detectors are the Far-IR Surveyor/Origins Space Telescope and the Inflation Probe/CMBPol, as well as next-generation submillimeter and millimeter balloon-borne, airborne (SOFIA), and ground-based telescopes.
The Kinetic Inductance Detectors could also benefit ground-based submillimeter/millimeter projects funded by the National Science Foundation.
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