United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of Nasa

Johns Hopkins University

The United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of the

Edward J Wollack

David T Chuss

Kongpop U-Yen

Ari D Brown

Kevin L Denis

Samuel H Moseley

Karwan Rostem

Giles A Novak

Charles L Bennett

Lingzhen Zeng

Kevin H Miller

Amil Ashok Patel

John G Hagopian

Douglas M Rabin

Patrick A Roman

Dominic J Benford

Felice M Vanin

Elissa Williams

Thomas R Stevenson

Jeffrey R Piepmeier

Sharham Shiri

James A Chervenak

Marc Castro

Terence Doiron

Kyle Helson

Elmer H Sharp

Peter deVisser

Adrian N Daw

Negar Ehsan

Rahul Datta

The present invention minimizes issues with transmission lines through the use of a normal-metal/superconducting meta-material structure realized with controlled impedance sub-wavelength line sections, which effectively concentrate the uncertainty in the section lengths in a portion of the termination geometry which has minimal impact on the non-resonant absorption in the structure. The present invention is used to achieve broadband absorption response and signal termination in planar transmission line devices. The longest wavelength sets the required length of the meta-material line, and its footprint is set by properties of the guiding structure (i.e., the resultant line can be folded, meandered, or spiraled with a spacing set is set by the field confinement of the transmission line topology in use).

Broadband metamaterial termination for planar superconducting transmission line circuits

Systems, methods, and devices of the various embodiments may provide a high-thermal-stability cryogenic-kinematic-mount with passive magnetic vibration damping. In various embodiments, the cryogenic-kinematic-mount may be configured for use in sub-Kelvin environments. Various embodiment cryogenic-kinematic-mounts may provide dampening and thermal isolation without a need for electronics or software feedback-based controls for the mounts. Various embodiments cryogenic-kinematic-mounts may be passive mounts configured to not require dampening controls.

Cryogenic thermal isolation stage with integral passive vibration dampers

The present invention relates to a plurality of phononic devices and a method of manufacturing thereof. In one embodiment, highly sensitive superconducting cryogenic detectors integrate phononic crystals into their architecture. The phononic structures are designed to reduce the loss of athermal phonons, resulting in lower noise and higher sensitivity detectors. This fabrication process increases the qp generation recombination rate, thus, reducing the noise equivalent power (NEP) without sacrificing the scalability. A plurality of phononic devices, such as a kinetic inductance detector (KID), a transition edge sensor (TES) bolometer, and quarterwave backshort, can be manufactured according to the methods of the present invention.

Phononic devices and methods of manufacturing thereof

The present invention relates to electromagnetic meta-material structures to serve as linear polarization sensitive mirrors. Two distinct classes have been developed, including: 1) a phase cohering reflector which maintains the phase of both polarization states with a controlled delay between polarization states, and 2) a phase de-cohering reflector which preserves the phase of one polarization state and destroys the coherence in the other. These reflective structures enable mitigation of spurious resonances in dual-polarization optical systems and phase compensation between polarization states. These polarization control structures have applications in absorber coupled detectors and receiver systems for space-borne and sub-orbital remote sensing applications.

Linear polarization sensitive meta-material reflector and phase modification structure and method

The present invention relates to a phononic-isolated Kinetic Inductance Detector (KID) and a method of fabrication thereof. The KID is a highly sensitive superconducting cryogenic detector which can be scaled to very large format arrays. The fabrication process of the KID of the present invention integrates a phononic crystal into a KID architecture. The phononic structures are designed to reduce the loss of recombination and athermal phonons, resulting in lower noise and higher sensitivity detectors.

Phononic-isolated kinetic inductance detector and fabrication method thereof

The process to fabricate a polymer film includes baking a cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) and a silicon wafer at a predefined temperature. The process also includes attaching a plastic tape frame to the silicon wafer and submerging the COC and the plastic tape frame within water allowing one or more ultra-thin sheets of COC film to be peeled off.

Process for fabricating one or more ultra-large area nanoscale polymer films

Processes for fabricating structured, relatively large area, ultra-thin polymer films are disclosed. For instance, such a process may include spinning a thermoplastic polymer film onto an etched wafer that serves as a mold for the thermoplastic polymer film, baking the thermoplastic polymer film on a hotplate at a curing temperature, delaminating the thermoplastic polymer film in water, and peeling the thermoplastic polymer film from the etched wafer, producing a structured thermoplastic polymer film that has structures corresponding to areas where the wafer has been etched.

Fabricating ultra-thin structured polymer films

A phononic filter includes a metamaterial body including a membrane including a crystalline or amorphous dielectric material, an elemental superconductor or an alloyed superconductor; and a plurality of spaced features. The spaced features includes holes, spacings, or apertures in the metamaterial body.

Two-dimensional phononic metamaterial filter structure for ultra-low-background detectors

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

A via-less crossover for use in broadband microwave/mm-wave circuitry, including: a dielectric substrate; a top layer disposed on one side of the substrate and including a microstrip line with an input and an output, two tapered sections placed around the microstrip line along a co-planar waveguide (CPW) central line, one microstrip portion having an input and which connects to one top layer, rectangular stub disposed adjacent to one of the tapered sections, and another microstrip portion having an output and which connects to another top layer, rectangular stub disposed adjacent to the other of the tapered sections; and a ground layer disposed on an opposite side of the substrate and including a bottom layer CPW central line situated in a central cutout and which connects between a bottom layer, rectangular stub on one side and a bottom layer, rectangular stub on the other side situated in ground cutouts, respectively.

Planar via-less crossover having coplanar waveguide configurations and stub layers

Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system and method for generating noise waves at millimeter wave frequencies. A noise source generator is designed to be connected to a crystalline structure for efficient heat transfer and compatibility with millimeter wave receivers. The use of crystalline structure coupled to the noise source generator allows heat from a biasing device, such as a diode, to be carried away such that the diode is able to generate noise waves while being reversed biased without compromising the device. In another embodiment, the noise source generator includes the use of a backshort transmission line with vias that is connected to the biasing device for heat transfer from the biasing device to the backshort.

Robust waveguide millimeter wave noise source

A photonic waveguide choke includes a first waveguide flange member having periodic metal tiling pillars, a dissipative dielectric material positioned within an area between the periodic metal tiling pillars and a second waveguide flange member disposed to be coupled with the first waveguide flange member and in spaced-apart relationship separated by a gap. The first waveguide flange member has a substantially smooth surface, and the second waveguide flange member has an array of two-dimensional pillar structures formed therein.

Photonic waveguide choke joint with absorptive loading

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.

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Clarksville, MD, United States of America

Edward J Wollack