The MKID Camera

The MKID Camera project is a collaborative effort of Caltech, JPL, the University of Colorado, and UC Santa Barbara to develop a large‐format, multi‐color millimeter and submillimeter‐wavelength camera for astronomy using microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs). These are superconducting, micro‐resonators fabricated from thin aluminum and niobium films. We couple the MKIDs to multi‐slot antennas and measure the change in surface impedance produced by photon‐induced breaking of Cooper pairs. The readout is almost entirely at room temperature and can be highly multiplexed; in principle hundreds or even thousands of resonators could be read out on a single feedline. The camera will have 576 spatial pixels that image simultaneously in four bands at 750, 850, 1100 and 1300 microns. It is scheduled for deployment at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in the summer of 2010. We present an overview of the camera design and readout and describe the current status of testing and fabrication