An Ultra-Low Noise Superconducting Antenna-Coupled Microbolometer With a Room-Temperature Read-Out

Author

Luukanen, Arttu ; Grossman, Erich N. ; Miller, Aaron J. ; Helistö, Panu ; Penttilä, Jari S. ; Sipola, Hannu ; Seppä, Heikki

Author_Institution

MilliLab, Nat. Inst. of Stand. & Technolog, Espoo

Volume

16

Issue

8

fYear

2006

Firstpage

464

Lastpage

466

Abstract

In this letter, we report the electrical and optical characteristics of a superconducting vacuum-bridge microbolometer with an electrical noise equivalent power of 26fW radicHz and an effective time constant of 380 ns, when operated at a bath temperature of 4K. We employ a novel room temperature external negative feedback readout architecture, that allows for noise matching to the device without bulky stepup transformers or cooled electronics. Both the detector and the readout lend themselves to be scaled to imaging arrays. The directly measured noise equivalent temperature difference over a 100-1000-GHz bandwidth is 125 mK in a 30-ms integration time

Keywords

bolometers; submillimetre wave antennas; submillimetre wave detectors; submillimetre wave imaging; superconducting photodetectors; 100 to 1000 GHz; 125 mK; 30 ms; 380 ns; 4 K; THz detectors; electrical characteristics; electrical noise; external negative feedback readout architecture; imaging arrays; noise matching; optical characteristics; room-temperature read-out; superconducting antenna-coupled microbolometer; superconducting vacuum-bridge microbolometer; Detectors; Negative feedback; Noise measurement; Optical feedback; Optical imaging; Optical noise; Sensor arrays; Superconducting device noise; Temperature measurement; Transformers; Bolometers; THz detectors; THz imaging; concealed weapons detection; superconducting detectors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1531-1309

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LMWC.2006.879483

Filename

1661645