An update on the SCUBA-2 project
Abstract
SCUBA-2, which replaces SCUBA (the Submillimeter Common User Bolometer Array) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in 2006, is a large-format bolometer array for submillimeter astronomy. Unlike previous detectors which have used discrete bolometers, SCUBA-2 has two dc-coupled, monolithic, filled arrays with a total of ~10,000 bolometers. It will offer simultaneous imaging of a 50 sq-arcmin field of view at wavelengths of 850 and 450 microns. SCUBA-2 is expected to have a huge impact on the study of galaxy formation and evolution in the early Universe as well as star and planet formation in our own Galaxy. Mapping the sky to the same S/N up to 1000 times faster than SCUBA, it will also act as a pathfinder for the new submillimeter interferometers such as ALMA. SCUBA-2's absorber-coupled pixels use superconducting transition edge sensors operating at 120 mK for performance limited by the sky background photon noise. The monolithic silicon detector arrays are deep-etched by the Bosch process to isolate the pixels on silicon nitride membranes. Electrical connections are made through indium bump bonds to a SQUID time-domain multiplexer (MUX). We give an overview of the SCUBA-2 system and an update on its status, and describe some of the technological innovations that make this unique instrument possible.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0410439,
title = {An update on the SCUBA-2 project},
author = {Michael Audley and Wayne Holland and Trevor Hodson and Mike MacIntosh and Ian Robson and Kent Irwin and Gene Hilton and William Duncan and Carl Reintsema and Anthony Walton and William Parkes and Peter Ade and Ian Walker and Michel Fich and Jan Kycia and Mark Halpern and David Naylor and George Mitchell and Pierre Bastien},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0410439},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
16 pages, 14 figures, Invited talk at SPIE Glasgow 21-25 June 2004, Conference 5498