Collaborative Research: RF-MEMS Phase Modulators for Millimeter-wave Polarimeter Array

合作研究：用于毫米波偏振计阵列的 RF-MEMS 相位调制器

• 批准号: 1006780
• 负责人: Nicolas Barker
• 金额: $ 62.09万
• 依托单位: University of Virginia Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-15 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1006780&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RF; MEMS; Phase

Measurements of the linear polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) offer a unique probe of the early universe. The currently most-successful model of modern cosmology includes an epoch of rapid expansion of space-time shortly after the Big Bang. Gravity waves, excited during this inflationary epoch, propagate through the universe and interact at much later times to impart a distinctive polarization pattern to the CMB. Detection of this gravity-wave signature would have profound consequences for both cosmology and high-energy physics. Not only would it establish inflation as a physical reality, a detection would test physics at energies above 10^15 GeV, more than 12 orders of magnitude beyond what is accessible in particle accelerators, yielding new insight into the nature of Grand Unification and quantum gravity.The predicted polarization signal in the CMB is weak and its measurement complicated by much brighter emission from the Milky Way galaxy. To effectively separate these two components, measurements must be accurate and made over a wide range in frequency. One of the most promising techniques for efficiently measuring the polarization of the CMB is in constructing many-pixel, integrated polarimeter arrays in which the signal in each channel is "chopped" electrically between opposing polarization states on time scales (~100 Hz) much shorter than those associated with the observing conditions. To date, these integrated polarimeters have lacked one key item: low-capacitance, low-insertion loss switches that can operate at cryogenic temperatures for long periods of time.The MEMS devices to be developed by PI's Barker and Kogut are Micro-Electro-Mechanical switches that appear to satisfy all of the necessary criteria for completing these "polarimeters on a chip". Central to this specialized effort is the combination of state-of-the-art development facilities at the University of Virginia Microfabrication Laboratories and the Detector Development Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Together these facilities enable fabrication and cryogenic testing of sophisticated electrical networks operating at frequencies up to 250 GHz.Going beyond the development of a technique for obtaining fundamental information about the early history of our Universe, the work to be carried out under this award will involve graduate and undergraduate students in the science and engineering of mm-wave instrumentation and produce new technologies that will benefit emerging applications in the fields of remote sensing and wideband communications.

对宇宙微波背景(CMB)线偏振的测量为早期宇宙提供了一个独特的探测器。目前最成功的现代宇宙学模型包括大爆炸后不久的一个时空迅速膨胀的时代。在这个暴涨时期激发的重力波在宇宙中传播，并在更晚的时间相互作用，给CMB提供了一种独特的偏振模式。探测到这种引力波信号将对宇宙学和高能物理产生深远的影响。这不仅会将暴涨确立为物理现实，而且探测将测试能量高于10^15GeV的物理学，这比粒子加速器可以达到的能量高出12个数量级，从而对大统一和量子引力的性质产生了新的见解。CMB中预测的偏振信号很弱，它的测量因银河系发出的更明亮的辐射而变得复杂。为了有效地分离这两个分量，测量必须准确，并且在很大的频率范围内进行。有效测量CMB极化的最有前途的技术之一是构造多个像素的集成偏振计阵列，其中每个通道中的信号在时间尺度(~100赫兹)上被电切换到相反的极化状态之间，比与观测条件相关的时间要短得多。到目前为止，这些集成的偏振仪缺少一个关键的项目：能够在低温下长时间工作的低电容、低插入损耗开关。由Pi‘s Barker和Kogut开发的MEMS器件是微电子机械开关，似乎满足完成这些“芯片上的偏振器”的所有必要标准。这项专门工作的核心是将弗吉尼亚大学微制造实验室的最先进的开发设施与NASA戈达德太空飞行中心的探测器开发实验室相结合。这些设施结合在一起，可以制造和低温测试频率高达250 GHz的复杂电力网络。除了开发一种获取关于我们宇宙早期历史的基本信息的技术之外，该奖项下开展的工作将涉及毫米波仪器科学和工程方面的研究生和本科生，并产生有利于遥感和宽带通信领域新兴应用的新技术。