The Detector System for the Stratospheric Kinetic Inductance Polarimeter (SKIP)

• Published in: Journal of Low Temperature Physics
• Main Authors: Johnson, B. R., Ade, P. A. R., Araujo, D., Bradford, K. J., Chapman, D., Day, P. K., Didier, J., Doyle, S., Eriksen, H. K., Flanigan, D., Groppi, C., Hillbrand, S., Jones, G., Limon, M., Mauskopf, P., McCarrick, H., Miller, A., Mroczkowski, T., Reichborn-Kjennerud, B., Smiley, B., Sobrin, J., Wehus, I. K., Zmuidzinas, J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Springer 2014
• Subjects: CMB; CIB; MKID; LEKID; Kiruna
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-013-1014-3

The stratospheric kinetic inductance polarimeter is a proposed balloon-borne experiment designed to study the cosmic microwave background, the cosmic infrared background and Galactic dust emission by observing 1,133 deg^2 of sky in the Northern Hemisphere with launches from Kiruna, Sweden. The instrument contains 2,317 single-polarization, horn-coupled, aluminum lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (Lekids). The Lekids will be maintained at 100 mK with an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator. The polarimeter operates in two configurations, one sensitive to a spectral band centered on 150 GHz and the other sensitive to 260 and 350 GHz bands. The detector readout system is based on the ROACH-1 board, and the detectors will be biased below 300 MHz. The detector array is fed by an F/2.4 crossed-Dragone telescope with a 500 mm aperture yielding a 15 arcmin FWHM beam at 150 GHz. To minimize detector loading and maximize sensitivity, the entire optical system will be cooled to 1 K. Linearly polarized sky signals will be modulated with a metal-mesh half-wave plate that is mounted at the telescope aperture and rotated by a superconducting magnetic bearing. The observation program consists of at least two, 5-day flights beginning with the 150 GHz observations. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York. Received: 31 July 2013. Accepted: 6 December 2013. Published online: 25 December 2013. Submitted - 1308.0235v3.pdf