Design of Near Infrared and Visible Kinetic Inductance Detectors Using MIM Capacitors

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel MIM capacitor design for superconducting Kinetic Inductance Detectors, enabling smaller pixel sizes and improved efficiency for near infrared and optical astronomy applications.

Contribution

Introduction of a metal-insulator-metal capacitor to reduce pixel size and enhance detector performance in superconducting Kinetic Inductance Detectors.

Findings

Pixel size reduced by a factor of nine.

Capacitor design achieves larger capacitance in smaller space.

Potential for improved astronomical detector efficiency.

Abstract

We are developing superconducting Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors to operate at near infrared and optical wavelengths for astronomy. In order to efficiently meet with the requirements of astronomical applications, we propose to replace the interdigitated capacitor by a metal, insulator, metal capacitor which has the advantage of presenting a larger capacitance value within a much smaller space. The pixel will occupy a space of typically 100 micrometers by 85 micrometers which is nine times less than a typical pixel size using the interdigitated capacitor operating at the same frequency, below 2 GHz.