Commercially fabricated antenna-coupled Transition Edge Sensor bolometer detectors for next generation Cosmic Microwave Background polarimetry experiment

TL;DR

This paper reports on the successful development and fabrication of high-yield, uniform, multi-chroic antenna-coupled TES bolometer arrays for next-generation CMB polarimetry, leveraging industrial manufacturing for scalability.

Contribution

It introduces a commercial fabrication process for large-scale, uniform TES bolometer arrays suitable for advanced CMB experiments, improving throughput and yield.

Findings

Achieved 95% yield in wafer-fabricated detector arrays.

Demonstrated uniform RF and TES properties across wafers.

Validated fabrication of various TES types for different multiplexing methods.

Abstract

We report on the development of commercially fabricated multi-chroic antenna coupled Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometer arrays for Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarimetry experiments. The orders of magnitude increase in detector count for next-generation CMB experiments requires a new approach in detector wafer production to increase fabrication throughput. We describe collaborative efforts with a commercial superconductor electronics fabrication facility (SeeQC, Inc.) to fabricate antenna coupled TES bolometer detectors. We have successfully fabricated an operational dual-polarization, dichroic sinuous antenna-coupled TES detector array on a 150 mm diameter wafer. The fabricated detector arrays have average yield of 95\% and excellent uniformity across the wafer. Both RF characteristics and TES bolometer properties are suitable for CMB observations. We successfully fabricated different types of TES bolometers optimized for frequency-multiplexing readout, time-domain multiplexing readout, and microwave SQUID multiplexing readout. We also demonstrated high production throughput. We discuss the motivation, design considerations, fabrication processes, test results, and how industrial detector fabrication could be a path to fabricate hundreds of detector wafers for future CMB polarimetry experiments.