Design and pre-flight performance of SPIDER 280 GHz receivers

Conference · Sun Dec 13 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Proc.SPIE Int.Soc.Opt.Eng.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2562941· OSTI ID:1842740

Shaw, E. C.

In this work we describe upgrades to the Spider balloon-borne telescope in preparation for its second flight, currently planned for December 2021. The Spider instrument is optimized to search for a primordial B-mode polarization signature in the cosmic microwave background at degree angular scales. During its first flight in 2015, Spider mapped ~10% of the sky at 95 and 150 GHz. The payload for the second Antarctic flight will incorporate three new 280 GHz receivers alongside three refurbished 95- and 150 GHz receivers from Spider's first flight. In this work we discuss the design and characterization of these new receivers, which employ over 1500 feedhorn-coupled transition-edge sensors. We describe pre-flight laboratory measurements of detector properties, and the optical performance of completed receivers. These receivers will map a wide area of the sky at 280 GHz, providing new information on polarized Galactic dust emission that will help to separate it from the cosmological signal.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 1842740
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-CONF-20-729-PPD; arXiv:2012.12407; oai:inspirehep.net:1837395
• Journal Information: Proc.SPIE Int.Soc.Opt.Eng., Vol. 11453
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY