Characterization of Si Membrane TES Bolometer Arrays for the HIRMES Instrument

Abstract

The high-resolution mid-infrared spectrometer instrument will fly onboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s airborne stratospheric observatory for infrared astronomy in 2019. It will provide astronomers with a unique observing window (25–122 $\upmu \hbox {m}$) for exploring the evolution of protoplanetary disks into young solar systems. There are two focal plane detector arrays for the instrument: a high-resolution ($\lambda / {\varDelta }\lambda \,=\,100{,}000$) $8\times 16$ detector array, with a target noise-equivalent power, $\hbox {NEP} \le 3 \hbox { aW}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$, and a low-resolution ($\lambda / {\varDelta }\lambda =600$–19,000) $16\times 64$ detector array with a target $\hbox {NEP }\le 20\hbox { aW}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$. The detectors for both of these arrays are superconducting Mo/Au bilayer transition-edge sensor bolometers on suspended single-crystal silicon membranes. We present detector characterization results for both arrays, including measurements of thermal conductance in comparison with phonon transport models, and measurements of saturation power and noise.