United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of Nasa

Ari D Brown

Edward J Wollack

Vilem Mikula

Kongpop U-Yen

Amil Ashok Patel

Kevin H Miller

Shahid Aslam

Kevin L Denis

Thomas R Stevenson

Dominic J Benford

Joseph Oxborrow

Emily M Barrentine

James A Chervenak

Timothy M Miller

The disclosed subject matter relates to techniques, laminates and devices used to fabricate thin dielectric or semiconductor membranes including a handling substrate including a photoresist material on a first surface thereof, a semiconductor wafer having a circuit pattern on a first surface and a second surface to be processed and a temporary adhesive layer temporarily bonding the first surface of the semiconductor wafer to the first surface of the handling substrate including the photoresist material.

Wafer-scale membrane release laminates, devices and processes

A metallic etching process includes applying an anti-reflection coating over a metallic superstrate, applying a dry film photoresist over the anti-reflection coating, removing exposed portions of the dry film photoresist exposing a portion of the anti-reflection coating, etching the exposed portions of the anti-reflection coating exposing portions of the metal superstrate, etching portions of the metallic superstrate not covered by the dry film photoresist, and removing the dry film photoresist and the anti-reflection coating leaving portions of the metallic superstrate. An indium bump liftoff process includes applying a positive photoresist, forming a liftoff mask by applying a dry film photoresist over the positive photoresist, removing exposed portions of the liftoff mask to expose a portion of a substrate, depositing an indium film over the exposed portion of the substrate and remaining portions of the liftoff mask, and removing remaining portions of the liftoff mask.

Indium bump liftoff process on micro-machined silicon substrates

The present invention relates to a waveguide-to-microstrip line transition package for superconducting film characterization. The package allows propagation and impedance properties thin-film microwave line superconductor to be characterized at millimeter wave frequencies as a function of frequency. The superconducting film's kinetic inductance can be varied by applying direct current along the ground plane via spring loaded probe. When implemented with a non-superconducting metal housing the present invention is highly suitable for measuring resonators with the quality factor, Q, ranges from 100 to 1&#xd7;10. Through the use of a housing realized from an appropriate superconducting bulk material or coating the upper end of this range of applicability can be readily extended to &#x3e;1&#xd7;10.

Waveguide mount for microstrip circuit and material characterization

The present invention relates to an electrically thin molybdenum thin film absorber coating for a detector, that is capable of absorbing a fraction of incident electromagnetic radiation over a 1-15 THz spectral range.

Molybdenum nitride absorber coating for a detector

The disclosed subject matter relates to an infrared detector including a dielectric detector membrane and a NbTiN absorber coating disposed thereon, the latter being a low stress, high resistivity film or coating useful at extremely low temperatures.

Niobium titanium nitride thin film coatings for far-infared absorption and filtering

The present invention relates to uncooled microbolometers which can be integrated in future thermal instruments engaged in land imaging on future observatories. The present invention includes: (1) developing and characterizing a microstructured VOx thin film, and, (2) fabricating an uncooled microbolometer array over the 8-14 micron spectral band.

Nanostructured vanadium oxide uncooled bolometers and method of fabrication

A method of fabricating circuitry in a wafer includes depositing a superconducting metal on a silicon on insulator wafer having a handle wafer, coating the wafer with a sacrificial layer and bonding the wafer to a thermally oxide silicon wafer with a first epoxy. The method includes flipping the wafer, thinning the flipped wafer by removing a handle wafer, etching a buried oxide layer, depositing a superconducting layer, bonding the wafer to a thermally oxidized silicon wafer having a handle wafer using an epoxy, flipping the wafer again, thinning the flipped wafer, etching a buried oxide layer from the wafer and etching the sacrificial layer from the wafer. The result is a wafer having superconductive circuitry on both sides of an ultra-thin silicon layer.

System and method for fabricating super conducting circuitry on both sides of an ultra-thin layer

The present invention relates to a symmetric absorber-coupled far-infrared microwave kinetic inductance detector including: a membrane having an absorber disposed thereon in a symmetric cross bar pattern; and a microstrip including a plurality of conductor microstrip lines disposed along all edges of the membrane, and separated from a ground plane by the membrane. The conducting microstrip lines are made from niobium, and the pattern is made from a superconducting material with a transition temperature below niobium, including one of aluminum, titanium nitride, or molybdenum nitride. The pattern is disposed on both a top and a bottom of the membrane, and creates a parallel-plate coupled transmission line on the membrane that acts as a half-wavelength resonator at readout frequencies. The parallel-plate coupled transmission line and the conductor microstrip lines form a stepped impedance resonator. The pattern provides identical power absorption for both horizontal and vertical polarization signals.

Symmetric absorber-coupled far-infrared microwave kinetic inductance detector

A metal film liftoff process includes applying a polymer layer onto a silicon substrate, applying a germanium layer over the polymer layer to create a bilayer lift off mask, applying a patterned photoresist layer over the germanium layer, removing an exposed portion of the germanium layer, removing the photoresist layer and a portion of the polymer layer to expose a portion of the substrate and create an overhanging structure of the germanium layer, depositing a metal film over the exposed portion of the substrate and the germanium layer, and removing the polymer and germanium layers along with the overlaying metal film.

High precision metal thin film liftoff technique

An apparatus for ultrasensitive long-wave imaging cameras is provided. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a filter configured to allow high frequencies of interest to pass through the filter. The apparatus also includes an antenna that is configured to receive the high frequencies of interest. The apparatus further includes a plurality of bolometers that are configured to measure data regarding the high frequencies of interest.

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Ellicott City, MD, United States of America

Ari D Brown