Design and pre-flight performance of SPIDER 280 GHz receivers

• Published in: Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy X
• Main Authors: Shaw, E. C., Ade, P.A.R., Akers, S., Amiri, M., Austermann, Jason E., Beall, James A., Becker, D.T., Benton, S.J., Bergman, A. S., Bock, J. J., Bond, J.R., Bryan, S.A., Chiang, H.C., Contaldi, C.R., Domagalski, R.S., Doré, O., Duff, S. M., Duivenvoorden, A.J., Eriksen, H.K., Farhang, M., Filippini, J. P., Fissel, L.M., Fraisse, A.A., Freese, K., Galloway, M., Gambrel, A. E., Gandilo, N.N., Ganga, K., Grigorian, A., Gualtieri, R, Gudmundsson, J.E., Halpern, M., Hartley, J., Hasselfield, M., Hilton, G., Holmes, W., Hristov, V. V., Huang, Z., Hubmayr, Johannes, Irwin, K.D., Jones, W.C., Kahn, A., Kuo, C.L., Kermish, Z.D., Lennox, A., Leung, J. S.-Y., Megerian, K., Reintsema, C., Li, S., Mason, P. V., Runyan, M. C., Moncelsi, L., Morford, T. A., Nagy, J.M., Nie, R., Mocanu, L. M., Padilla, I.L., Netterfield, C. B., Osherson, B., Rahlin, A.S., Redmond, S., Turner, A. D., Romualdez, L.J., Nolta, M., Ruhl, J.E., Shariff, J.A., Shiu, C., Soler, J.D., Song, X., Trangsrud, A., Thommesen, H., Tucker, C, Tucker, R. S., Ullom, Joel, van der List, J.F., Van Lanen, Jeff, Vissers, M. R., Weber, A. C., Wen, S., Wehus, I.K., Wiebe, D.V., Young, E.Y.
• Other Authors: Zmuidzinas, Jonas, Gao, Jian-Rong
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) 2020
• Subjects: Spider; cosmic microwave background; polarization; transition-edge sensor; scientific instrumentation; millimeter wave instrumentation; cosmology; scientific ballooning; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Austin; Canada; Norway; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2562941

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. © 2020 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Spider is supported in the U.S. by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grants NNX07AL64G, NNX12AE95G, and NNX17AC55G issued through the Science Mission Directorate and by the National Science Foundation through PLR-1043515. Logistical support for the Antarctic deployment and operations was provided by the NSF through the U.S. Antarctic Program. Support in Canada is provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Canadian Space Agency. Support in Norway is provided by the Research Council of Norway. Support in Sweden is provided by the Swedish Research Council through the Oskar Klein Centre (Contract No. 638-2013-8993). The Dunlap Institute is funded through an endowment established by the David Dunlap family and the University of Toronto. K.F. is Jeff & Gail Kodosky Endowed Chair in Physics at the University of Texas at Austin and is grateful for support. K.F. acknowledges support by the Swedish Research Council ...