The performance of the bolometer array and readout system during the 2012/2013 flight of the E and B experiment (EBEX)
astro-ph.IM
/ Authors
Kevin MacDermid, Asad M. Aboobaker, Peter Ade, Francois Aubin, Carlo Baccigalupi, Kevin Bandura, Chaoyun Bao, Julian Borrill, Daniel Chapman, Joy Didier
and 31 more authors
Matt Dobbs, Julien Grain, Will Grainger, Shaul Hanany, Kyle Helson, Seth Hillbrand, Gene Hilton, Hannes Hubmayr, Kent Irwin, Bradley Johnson, Andrew Jaffe, Terry Jones, Ted Kisner, Jeff Klein, Andrei Korotkov, Adrian Lee, Lorne Levinson, Michele Limon, Amber Miller, Michael Milligan, Enzo Pascale, Kate Raach, Britt Reichborn-Kjennerud
/ Abstract
EBEX is a balloon-borne telescope designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation. During its eleven day science flight in the Austral Summer of 2012, it operated 955 spider-web transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers separated into bands at 150, 250 and 410 GHz. This is the first time that an array of TES bolometers has been used on a balloon platform to conduct science observations. Polarization sensitivity was provided by a wire grid and continuously rotating half-wave plate. The balloon implementation of the bolometer array and readout electronics presented unique development requirements. Here we present an outline of the readout system, the remote tuning of the bolometers and Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID) amplifiers, and preliminary current noise of the bolometer array and readout system.