A millimeter-wave photometric camera for long-range imaging through optical obscurants using kinetic inductance detectors
Passive imaging through optical obscurants is a promising application for mm-wave sensing. We have thus developed the Superconducting Kinetic Inductance Passive Radiometer (SKIPR), a 150 GHz polarization-sensitive photometric camera optimized for terrestrial imaging using a focal plane array with 3840 kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs). We present a full description of the instrument design, with a particular emphasis on the cryogenic system based on a Gifford-McMahon cryocooler with a two-stage adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator and a dedicated 1.59 m crossed Dragone telescope with an altitude/azimuth mount. We include a detailed lab-based characterization of the KIDs, which results in a determination of their superconducting resonator parameters and optical properties. We also present in situ measurements from the telescope, including point-spread functions and noise characterization. In sum, we find that SKIPR performs as expected, providing diffraction-limited imaging with detector noise performance set by the random arrivals of photons from the ambient background. There is minimal variation in detector characteristics over the full SKIPR focal plane array, and the overall detector yield is 92%.
Authors
- Bradley R. Johnson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6898-8938)
- Peter K. Day (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3670-9017)
- P. Mauskopf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6397-5516)
- Adhitya B. Sriram
- Daniel Cunnane (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8039-7914)
- Tyrone McNichols (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5132-9661)
- Byeong Ho Eom (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0976-0861)
- H. G. LeDuc (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6721-5271)
- Ryan O. Stephenson
- Liam Walters (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8309-8298)
- Sage Crystian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1050-278X)
- M. Hollister (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2807-5971)
- Fabien Defrance (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3746-5296)
- M. C. Runyan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9554-5710)
- Stuart T. Stanton
- Jonathan Greenfield (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2287-3270)
- C. W. Roberson
- Jack Sayers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8213-3784)
- Eric R. Weeks (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1503-3633)
Institutions
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Cryogenic Industries (United States) (US)
- University of Virginia (US)
- Arizona State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Review of Scientific Instruments
- Published
- 2025-03-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0249704
- Primary Topic
- Superconducting and THz Device Technology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Office of Naval Research