NSF Award
9901821
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project addresses the development of a wide-bandwidth Superconducting Quantum Interface Device (SQUID)-based amplifier for cryogenic particle detectors. An approach for implementing a two-stage SQUID amplifier readout scheme was first introduced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Utilizing this approach, the firm has already optimized and successfully commercialized a first-generation SQUID amplifier system with associated room temperature electronics. This system exhibits a sensitivity of 2 pA/root Hz, a bandwidth of 2 MHz, and an operating temperature of 0.7K - 4.2K. However, the relatively small bandwidth and the lower bound of its operating temperature have limited its applicability to a small fraction of all cryogenic detectors. During the Phase I project, the feasibility of an innovative design scheme integrating 100-200 SQUID capable of 50 MHz bandwidth while retaining low noise performance was established. It is, therefore, proposed to demonstrate and prepare for Phase III commercialization effort an amplifier system based on this SQUID architecture which possesses 1 pA/root Hz sensitivity and 50 MHz bandwidth. As part of the development effort, the fabrication materials will be altered to allow operation well below 0.7 K down to a few mK. This system significantly expands the applicability of the amplifier to virtually all cryogenic x-ray and particle detector readouts. <br/> The availability of such a low-cost SQUID amplifier 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.
