61 research outputs found
Design of a Fast Digital Double Relaxation Oscillation SQUID
A fast digital Double Relaxation Oscillation SQUID (DROS) with a relaxation oscillation frequency of 100 MHz has been developed. The digital DROS incorporates a DROS and a superconducting up-down counter that supplies the feedback flux. The major advantage of a DROS is that the relaxation oscillations generate an on-chip clock signal and therefore, no external clock is required. In order to maximize the slew rate without compromising the sensitivity, the quantization unit of the feedback flux was adapted to the flux noise of the DROS. This resulted in a designed flux slew rate of 5·106 ¿0/s. We will discuss the design optimization, numerical simulations, the layout and some experimental results of the digital DRO
Sensitivity of the spherical gravitational wave detector MiniGRAIL operating at 5 K
We present the performances and the strain sensitivity of the first spherical
gravitational wave detector equipped with a capacitive transducer and read out
by a low noise two-stage SQUID amplifier and operated at a temperature of 5 K.
We characterized the detector performance in terms of thermal and electrical
noise in the system output sygnal. We measured a peak strain sensitivity of
at 2942.9 Hz. A strain sensitivity of better than
has been obtained over a bandwidth of 30 Hz. We expect
an improvement of more than one order of magnitude when the detector will
operate at 50 mK. Our results represent the first step towards the development
of an ultracryogenic omnidirectional detector sensitive to gravitational
radiation in the 3kHz range.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Coded SQUID arrays
We report on a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) system to read out large arrays of cryogenic detectors. In order to reduce the number of SQUIDs required for an array of these detectors, we used code-division multiplexing. This simplifies the electronics because of a significantly reduced number of wires from the cryogenic detectors to the SQUIDs and the room temperature electronics. Several prototype chips based on SQUIDs with multiple inputs coils have been developed and direct and indirect crosstalk properties are discussed
MiniGRAIL progress report 2004
The MiniGRAIL detector was improved. The sphere was replaced by a slightly larger one, having a diameter of 68 cm (instead of 65 cm), reducing the resonant frequency by about 200 Hz to around 2.9 kHz. The last four masses of the attenuation system were machined to increase their resonant frequency and improve the attenuation around the resonant frequency of the sphere. In the new sphere, six holes were machined on the TIGA positions for easy mounting of the transducers. During the last cryogenic run, two capacitive transducers and a calibrator were mounted on the sphere. The first transducer was coupled to a double-stage SQUID amplifier having a commercial quantum design SQUID as a first stage and a DROS as a second stage. The second transducer was read by a single-stage quantum design SQUID. During the cryogenic run, the sphere was cooled down to 4 K. The two-stage SQUID had a flux noise of about 1.6 μ0 Hz−1/2. The detector was calibrated and the sensitivity curve of MiniGRAIL was determined
Advanced code-division multiplexers for superconducting detector arrays
Multiplexers based on the modulation of superconducting quantum interference
devices are now regularly used in multi-kilopixel arrays of superconducting
detectors for astrophysics, cosmology, and materials analysis. Over the next
decade, much larger arrays will be needed. These larger arrays require new
modulation techniques and compact multiplexer elements that fit within each
pixel. We present a new in-focal-plane code-division multiplexer that provides
multiplexing elements with the required scalability. This code-division
multiplexer uses compact lithographic modulation elements that simultaneously
multiplex both signal outputs and superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES)
detector bias voltages. It eliminates the shunt resistor used to voltage bias
TES detectors, greatly reduces power dissipation, allows different dc bias
voltages for each TES, and makes all elements sufficiently compact to fit
inside the detector pixel area. These in-focal-plane code-division multiplexers
can be combined with multi-gigahertz readout based on superconducting
microresonators to scale to even larger arrays.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, presented at the 14th International Workshop on
Low Temperature Detectors, Heidelberg University, August 1-5, 2011,
proceedings to be published in the Journal of Low Temperature Physic
MiniGRAIL progress report 2004
Abstract The MiniGRAIL detector was improved. The sphere was replaced by a slightly larger one, having a diameter of 68 cm (instead of 65 cm), reducing the resonant frequency by about 200 Hz to around 2.9 kHz. The last four masses of the attenuation system were machined to increase their resonant frequency and improve the attenuation around the resonant frequency of the sphere. In the new sphere, six holes were machined on the TIGA positions for easy mounting of the transducers. During the last cryogenic run, two capacitive transducers and a calibrator were mounted on the sphere. The first transducer was coupled to a double-stage SQUID amplifier having a commercial quantum design SQUID as a first stage and a DROS as a second stage. The second transducer was read by a single-stage quantum design SQUID. During the cryogenic run, the sphere was cooled down to 4 K. The two-stage SQUID had a flux noise of about 1.6 µφ 0 Hz −1/2 . The detector was calibrated and the sensitivity curve of MiniGRAIL was determined. PACS numbers: 04.80.Nn, 95.55.Ym The new sphere The old MiniGRAIL sphere turned out to have an unexpectedly low quality factor of about 1.5 million below 200 m
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