Thermal Kinetic Inductance Detectors (TKIDs) combine the excellent noise performance of traditional bolometers with a radio frequency multiplexing architecture that enables the large detector counts needed for the next generation of millimeter-wave instruments. In this paper, we first discuss the expected noise sources in TKIDs and derive the limits where the phonon noise contribution dominates over the other detector noise terms: generation-recombination, amplifier, and two-level system (TLS) noise. Second, we characterize aluminum TKIDs in a dark environment. We present measurements of TKID resonators with quality factors of about 105 at 80 mK. We also discuss the bolometer thermal conductance, heat capacity, and time constants. These were measured by the use of a resistor on the thermal island to excite the bolometers. These dark aluminum TKIDs demonstrate a noise equivalent power NEP = 2×10−17W/Hz, with a 1/f knee at 0.1 Hz, which provides background noise limited performance for ground-based telescopes observing at 150 GHz.
@article{arxiv.2001.08887,
title = {Thermal Kinetic Inductance Detectors for millimeter-wave detection},
author = {Albert Wandui and Jamie Bock and Clifford Frez and Matthew Hollister and Lorenzo Minutolo and Hien Nguyen and Bryan Steinbach and Anthony Turner and Jonas Zmuidzinas and Roger O'Brient},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.08887},
year = {2020}
}