Characterization of Si Membrane TES Bolometer Arrays for the HIRMES Instrument

The high-resolution mid-infrared spectrometer instrument will fly onboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s airborne stratospheric observatory for infrared astronomy in 2019. It will provide astronomers with a unique observing window (25–122 $$\upmu \hbox {m}$$ ) for exploring the evolution of protoplanetary disks into young solar systems. There are two focal plane detector arrays for the instrument: a high-resolution ( $$\lambda / {\varDelta }\lambda \,=\,100{,}000$$ ) $$8\times 16$$ detector array, with a target noise-equivalent power, $$\hbox {NEP} \le 3 \hbox { aW}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$$ , and a low-resolution ( $$\lambda / {\varDelta }\lambda =600$$ –19,000) $$16\times 64$$ detector array with a target $$\hbox {NEP }\le 20\hbox { aW}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$$ . The detectors for both of these arrays are superconducting Mo/Au bilayer transition-edge sensor bolometers on suspended single-crystal silicon membranes. We present detector characterization results for both arrays, including measurements of thermal conductance in comparison with phonon transport models, and measurements of saturation power and noise.