Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

A frequency-domain read-out technique suitable for large microcalorimeter arrays demonstrated using high-resolution cryogenic gamma-ray sensors

Published

Author(s)

Joel Ullom, M. Cunningham, T. Miyazaki, S. E. Lebov

Abstract

Cryogenic sensors composed of transition-biased superconducting films have demonstrated remarkable sensitivity at gamma-ray, x-ray, optical, and submillimeter wavelengths. However, for these sensors to find widespread application in astronomy and materials analysis, technologies for building and reading-out large arrays are required. We are currently developing a frequency-domain multiplexing scheme for the read-out of large numbers of microcalorimeters using a much smaller number of amplifiers. In this scheme, each sensor is biased at an identifying frequency and operated in a series LC circuit to suppress out-of-band noise. Here, we present results demonstrating the undegraded operation of two gamma-ray sensors multiplexed using this technique. In addition, we provide a series of design rules which relate the minimum bias frequency and the values of the reactive elements in the system to a small number of sensor properties. Finally, we discuss the ultimate limits on the number of sensors that can be measured with a single amplifier.
Citation
IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity
Volume
13
Issue
2

Keywords

microcalorimeters, multiplexing, SQUIDs, transition-edge sensors

Citation

Ullom, J. , Cunningham, M. , Miyazaki, T. and Lebov, S. (2003), A frequency-domain read-out technique suitable for large microcalorimeter arrays demonstrated using high-resolution cryogenic gamma-ray sensors, IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created May 31, 2003, Updated October 12, 2021