A DUAL-BAND MILLIMETER-WAVE KINETIC INDUCTANCE CAMERA FOR THE IRAM 30 m TELESCOPE

Journal Article · Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/194/2/24· OSTI ID:21560377

Monfardini, A; Benoit, A; Bideaud, A; Swenson, L; Cruciani, A; Camus, P; Hoffmann, C ^[1]; Desert, F X ^[2]; Doyle, S; Ade, P; Mauskopf, P; Tucker, C ^[3]; Roesch, M; Leclercq, S; Schuster, K F ^[4]; Endo, A ^[5]; Baryshev, A; Baselmans, J J. A.; Ferrari, L; Yates, S J. C, ^[6]

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1. Institut Neel, CNRS and Universite Joseph Fourier (UJF), Grenoble F-38042 (France)
2. Institut de Planetologie et d'Astrophysique, UJF and CNRS-INSU, Grenoble F-38041 (France)
3. Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA (United Kingdom)
4. Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimetrique (IRAM), Saint Martin d'Heres F-38406 (France)
5. Kavli Institute of NanoScience, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CJ Delft (Netherlands)
6. SRON, Netherlands Institute for Space Research, 3584 CA Utrecht and 9700 AV Groningen (Netherlands)

The Neel IRAM KIDs Array (NIKA) is a fully integrated measurement system based on kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) currently being developed for millimeter wave astronomy. The instrument includes dual-band optics allowing simultaneous imaging at 150 GHz and 220 GHz. The imaging sensors consist of two spatially separated arrays of KIDs. The first array, mounted on the 150 GHz branch, is composed of 144 lumped-element KIDs. The second array (220 GHz) consists of 256 antenna-coupled KIDs. Each of the arrays is sensitive to a single polarization; the band splitting is achieved by using a grid polarizer. The optics and sensors are mounted in a custom dilution cryostat, with an operating temperature of {approx}70 mK. Electronic readout is realized using frequency multiplexing and a transmission line geometry consisting of a coaxial cable connected in series with the sensor array and a low-noise 4 K amplifier. The dual-band NIKA was successfully tested in 2010 October at the Institute for Millimetric Radio Astronomy (IRAM) 30 m telescope at Pico Veleta, Spain, performing in-line with laboratory predictions. An optical NEP was then calculated to be around 2 x 10{sup -16} W Hz{sup -1/2} (at 1 Hz) while under a background loading of approximately 4 pW pixel{sup -1}. This improvement in comparison with a preliminary run (2009) verifies that NIKA is approaching the target sensitivity for photon-noise limited ground-based detectors. Taking advantage of the larger arrays and increased sensitivity, a number of scientifically relevant faint and extended objects were then imaged including the Galactic Center SgrB2 (FIR1), the radio galaxy Cygnus A, and the NGC1068 Seyfert galaxy. These targets were all observed simultaneously in the 150 GHz and 220 GHz atmospheric windows.

• OSTI ID: 21560377
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Vol. 194, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0067-0049/194/2/24; ISSN 0067-0049
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
AMPLIFIERS
ANTENNAS
CAMERAS
CRYOSTATS
INDUCTANCE
OPTICS
RADIO GALAXIES
SENSITIVITY
SENSORS
SEYFERT GALAXIES
TELESCOPES
CONTROL EQUIPMENT
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
GALAXIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
THERMOSTATS