The Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI)
The High Frequency Instrument (HFI) aboard Planck uses Jet Propulsion
Laboratory spider-web and polarization-sensitive bolometers cooled to
0.1 K to map the sky in six frequency bands from 100 to 857 GHz
(3 mm to 350 microns). Each of the 54 detectors in the focal
plane was fabricated at JPL's Microdevices Laboratory (MDL).
HFI's focal plane seen from the point of view of an incoming photon.
The 32 feed horns concentrate light onto the detectors.
(Image credit: ESA)
A bolometer detects infrared and mm-wave light by detecting its heat, much
like feeling the warmth of sunlight with your hand. The light is absorbed on
the surface of the bolometer (which looks like a spider web), heating the
bolometer. The resulting temperature increase of the bolometer is detected
by a tiny thermometer (thermistor) in the center of the web. The change in
temperature of the bolometer depends on the intensity of the incoming light.
Bolometers detect any source of heat – including cosmic ray particles that
can hit the bolometer and deposit heat. The spider web design allows
long-wavelength thermal radiation to be absorbed, but high-energy cosmic
rays pass through. The spider web design also makes the bolometers much
lighter and less sensitive to the vibrations of a rocket launch into space.
The spider web consists of 1 micron thick silicon nitride, coated with gold.
The thermistor is a 30x100x300 micron slice of neutron transmutation doped
(NTD) germanium, and is connected to the spider web with indium bump bonds.
The spider web diameter and grid spacing varies depending on the frequency of
operation of the device.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory 545 GHz (left) and 100 GHz (right) spider-web
bolometers for HFI. (from Holmes et al. (2008)). The web absorbs the light
and the thermistor (small rectangle in the center of each web) measures the
resulting increase in temperature. (from Holmes et al. (2008))
The 32 polarization sensitive bolometers (PSBs) aboard Planck can also
measure the polarization of incoming light. Instead of a circular spider-web
grid, a PSB consists of a square grid which is only metallized in one
direction. This allows the bolometer to only absorb a single polarization
of incoming radiation. Every PSB works in a pair so that each polarization
sense is detected simultaneously.
A polarization sensitive bolometer (PSB) module (from Holmes et al.(2008)).
Two PSBs are mounted close together and each absorbs one polarization of the
incoming light. (from Holmes et al. (2008))
The mission of Planck is to measure tiny fluctuations in the 2.7 Kelvin Cosmic
Microwave Background radiation. HFI's bolometers must be cooled and operated
at 0.1 Kelvin in order to minimize sources of noise. The HFI bolometers are
close to the limit of background photon noise during operations at L2.
Measured dark noise equivalent power (NEP) of the focal plane detectors,
including 6.5 nV / sqrt(Hz) amplifier noise at nominal bias. The open
diamond symbols are the NEP for detectors installed in the focal plane. The
open square symbols are the NEP of spare bolometers. The thick solid line segments
indicate the photon background limit from a 35 K telescope and astrophysical
sources in each band for a 30% bandwidth and 30% in band optical efficiency.
Unpolarized detectors at 100 GHz were made and delivered but were
replaced by polarized detectors. (from Holmes et al. (2008))
For more technical background:
-
W.A. Holmes et al., Initial Test Results on Bolometers for the Planck High
Frequency Instrument, Applied Optics 47:5996 (2008)
-
J .M. Lamarre et al., in "The Cosmic Microwave Background and its Polarization",
New Astronomy Reviews, (eds., S. Hanany and R.A. Olive) astro-ph/0308075v1 (2003).
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