title: Horn-coupled, commercially-fabricated aluminum lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors for millimeter wavelengths.
abstract: We discuss the design, fabrication, and testing of prototype horn-coupled, lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs) designed for cosmic microwave background studies. The LEKIDs are made from a thin aluminum film deposited on a silicon wafer and patterned using standard photolithographic techniques at STAR Cryoelectronics, a commercial device foundry. We fabricated 20-element arrays, optimized for a spectral band centered on 150 GHz, to test the sensitivity and yield of the devices as well as the multiplexing scheme. We characterized the detectors in two configurations. First, the detectors were tested in a dark environment with the horn apertures covered, and second, the horn apertures were pointed towards a beam-filling cryogenic blackbody load. These tests show that the multiplexing scheme is robust and scalable, the yield across multiple LEKID arrays is 91%, and the measured noise-equivalent temperatures for a 4 K optical load are in the range 26±6 μK√s.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10025, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McCarrick
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10025, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Flanigan
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10025, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10025, USA.
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales CF24 3AA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ade
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10025, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Araujo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bradford
authors.affiliation: STAR Cryoelectronics, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87508, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cantor
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Che
authors.affiliation: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Day
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales CF24 3AA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Doyle
authors.affiliation: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Leduc
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10025, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Limon
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10025, USA.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Luu
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales CF24 3AA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mauskopf
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10025, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC 20375, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mroczkowski
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales CF24 3AA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tucker
authors.affiliation: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zmuidzinas