Preliminary performance measurements of bolometers for the Planck high-frequency instrument

Abstract

We report on the characterization of bolometers fabricated at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) of the joint ESA/NASA Herschel/Planck mission to be launched in 2007. The HFI is a multicolor focal plane which consists of 48 bolometers operated at 100mK. Each bolometer is mounted to a feedhorn-filter assembly which defines one of six frequency bands centered between 100-857GHz. Four detectors in each of six bands are coupled to both linear polarizations and thus measure the total intensity. In addition, eight detectors in each of 3 bands (143, 217, and 353GHz) couple only to a single linear polarization and thus provide measurements of the Stokes parameters, Q and U, as well the total intensity. The detectors are required to achieve a Noise Equivalent Power (NEP) at or below the background limit ∼ 10^(-17)W/√Hz for the telescope and time constants of a few ms, short enough to resolve point sources as the 5 to 9 arc-minute beams move across the sky in great circles at 1 rpm. The bolometers are tested at 100mK in a commercial dilution refrigerator with a custom built thermal control system to regulate the heat sink with precision < 100nK/√Hz. The 100mK tests include dark electrical characterization of the load curves, optical and electrical measurement of the thermal time constants and measurement of the noise spectral density from 0.01 to 10Hz for up to 24 bolometers simultaneously.