SBIR Phase I: Development of Low-Cost Single-Stage Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) Array Amplifiers for High-Resolution Particle and X-Ray Detectors

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*** 9760541 Radparvar This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project addresses the development of a wide-bandwidth SQUID-based amplifier chip for cryogenic particle detectors. A novel approach for implementing a wide bandwidth and inexpensive SQUID readout scheme was recently proposed and demonstrated by Welty and Martinis at NIST. This SQUID amplifier chip integrates a single analog SQUID coupled to an array of SQUIDs. The firm is presently producing and marketing this SQUID amplifier system with associated room temperature electronics which exhibits a sensitivity of better than 2 pA/(Hz and bandwidth of 2 MHz, dissipates approximately 1W), and has low cost. To improve upon the bandwidth, a single-stage version of the SQUID amplifier chip integrated from 144 analog SQUIDs was recently designed, fabricated, and evaluated. This project proposes to assemble and demonstrate a complete amplifier system based on this single-stage SQUID chip and to continue its optimization for better noise characteristic and current/magnetic sensitivity. This system enables a more efficient application of the SQUID amplifiers to x-ray and particle detector readouts. In developing the two-stage SQUID array amplifier system for commercialization, the firm collaborated with Dr. John Martinis (NIST), Professor Blas Cabrera (Stanford University), and Dr. Richard Welty (formerly with NIST). These collaborative efforts will be continued to ensure development of a system suitable for x-ray and particle detector applications. The availability of such low-cost SQUID amplifiers would result in their use for nearly all high energy physics research experiments, high-resolution x-ray spectroscopy, imaging detectors, particle identification systems, biomagnetometry for the mapping of brain functions, and detection of corrosion and cracks in aircraft. ***