A Millimeter and Submillimeter Kinetic Inductance Detector Camera

We present results from a demonstration camera using Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) (Day et al. in Nature 425, 817–821, [2003]) at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. The focal plane consists of 16 two-color (240 and 350 GHz) pixels. Each pixel is a phased-array of slot dipole antenna whose output power is coupled to MKIDs via in-line color-defining bandpass filters. A prototype software-defined radio system was used to read out up to four MKIDs simultaneously. We obtained maps of Jupiter, Saturn, and G34.3 and demonstrated sensitivities of approximately 1 Jy s1/2 and 10 Jy s1/2 in the two bands, respectively, limited by detector noise due to a low-efficiency optical train. We anticipate that a second engineering run in 2008 with a 36-element, 4-color array and an optimized optical train will be background limited at 240, 270, 350, and 400 GHz. We are undertaking the construction of a full-size MKID camera with 576 four-color spatial pixels and using 2304 MKIDs readout by an expanded software-defined radio system.