Simons Observatory: on-sky performance of radio-transparent multi-layer insulation using Styroace-II styrofoam

We present the on-sky performance of a radio-transparent multi-layer insulation filter (RT-MLI) that uses Styroace-II styrofoam to reject ambient thermal radiation from entering a 0.42 m diameter aperture to a sub-100 mK bolometric detector array cooled by a dilution refrigerator. We find that greater than 90% of the expected incident infra-red (IR) radiation is rejected, resulting in <12<i>W</i> of measured transmitted power. Transmitted power in the detector passbands is consistent with a lower bound of 95%. We address filter design and placement, thermal loading, and mm-wave transmission.

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Publication Details

Journal
Applied Optics
Published
2026-01-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1364/ao.585070
Primary Topic
Superconducting and THz Device Technology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Simons Observatory: on-sky performance of radio-transparent multi-layer insulation using Styroace-II styrofoam

O. Tajima, Yoshinori Sueno, Samuel Day-Weiss, M. Hasegawa et al.
Applied Optics
Superconducting and THz Device Technology
article

Simons Observatory: on-sky performance of radio-transparent multi-layer insulation using Styroace-II styrofoam

O. Tajima, Yoshinori Sueno, Samuel Day-Weiss, M. Hasegawa, Kathleen Harrington, Aashrita Mangu, Kyohei Yamada, Akito Kusaka, Alex Thomas, Atsuto Takeuchi, Nicholas Galitzki, Jack Orlowski-Scherer, Bradley Johnson, Yuhan Wang, Edward Wollack, Kam Arnold, Lyman Page
article en

Abstract

We present the on-sky performance of a radio-transparent multi-layer insulation filter (RT-MLI) that uses Styroace-II styrofoam to reject ambient thermal radiation from entering a 0.42 m diameter aperture to a sub-100 mK bolometric detector array cooled by a dilution refrigerator. We find that greater than 90% of the expected incident infra-red (IR) radiation is rejected, resulting in <12<i>W</i> of measured transmitted power. Transmitted power in the detector passbands is consistent with a lower bound of 95%. We address filter design and placement, thermal loading, and mm-wave transmission.

Applied OpticsVol. 65(5)
Argonne National Laboratory (US), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (JP), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), Cornell University (US), Kyoto University (JP), Laboratoire AstroParticule et Cosmologie (FR), University of California San Diego (US), California University of Pennsylvania (US), University of Chicago (US), University of Virginia (US), The University of Tokyo (JP), The University of Texas at Austin (US)
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 80%
Superconducting and THz Device Technology
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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Simons Observatory: on-sky performance of radio-transparent multi-layer insulation using Styroace-II styrofoam — O. Tajima, Yoshinori Sueno, et al. · Applied Optics (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS