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The Primordial Inflation Polarization ExploreR (PIPER) is a balloon-borne instrument optimized to measure the polarization of the CMB at large angular scales. It will map 85% of the sky over a series of conventional balloon flights from the Northern and Southern hemispheres, measuring the B-mode polarization power spectrum over a range of multipoles from 2-300 covering both the reionization bump and the recombination peak, with sensitivity to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio down to r = 0.007. PIPER will observe in four frequency bands centered at 200, 270, 350, and 600 GHz to characterize dust foregrounds. The instrument has background-limited sensitivity provided by fully cryogenic (1.7 K) optics focusing the sky signal onto kilo-pixel arrays of time-domain multiplexed Transition-Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers held at 100 mK. Polarization sensitivity and systematic control are provided by front-end Variable-delay Polarization Modulators (VPMs). PIPER had its engineering ight in October 2017 from Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This papers outlines the major components in the PIPER system discussing the conceptual design as well as specific choices made for PIPER. We also report on the results of the engineering flight, looking at the functionality of the payload systems, particularly VPM, as well as pointing out areas of improvement.

The Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) instrument, one of several instruments on JAXA’s Astro-H mission, will observe diffuse X-ray sources with unparalleled spectral resolution using a microcalorimeter array operating at 50 mK. The array is cooled with a multi-stage Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator mounted on a 40 l helium tank. The tank is at the center of a typical “shell in shell” cryostat, with the innermost shield cooled by a JT cryocooler, and successive outer shields cooled by stirling-cycle cryocoolers. To achieve a multi-year liquid helium lifetime and to avoid exceeding the limited capacity of the JT cooler, very strict requirements are placed on every source of heat leak into these surfaces from the higher temperature shields. However, each ADR stage draws a maximum of 2 A, and the Wiedemann–Franz Law precludes even an optimized set of normal-metal leads capable of such high current from achieving the required low thermal conductance. Instead, a set of lead assemblies have been developed based on narrow high temperature superconductor (HTS) tapes derived from commercially available coated conductors. Although the HTS tapes are flexible and have high tensile strength, they are extremely sensitive to damage through a number of mechanisms. A robust set of assemblies have been developed that provide mechanical support to the tapes, provide appropriate interfaces at either end, and yet still meet the challenging thermal requirements. An Engineering Model (EM) set of HTS lead assemblies have survived environmental testing, both as individual units and as part of the EM cryostat, and have performed without problem in recent operation of the EM instrument. The Flight Model (FM) HTS lead assemblies are currently nearing completion.

The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) is a balloon-borne telescope mission to search for inflationary gravitational waves from the early universe. PIPER employs two 32x40 arrays of superconducting transition-edge sensors, which operate at 100 mK. An open bucket dewar of liquid helium maintains the receiver and telescope optics at 1.7 K. We describe the thermal design of the receiver and sub-kelvin cooling with a continuous adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (CADR). The CADR operates between 70-130 mK and provides ~10 uW cooling power at 100 mK, nearly five times the loading of the two detector assemblies. We describe electronics and software to robustly control the CADR, overall CADR performance in flight-like integrated receiver testing, and practical considerations for implementation in the balloon float environment., Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures

For the via-first dual damascene process, a planarizing anti-reflective material and gap-fill material are typically used to ensure a lithography process produces the best profiles and critical dimension (CD) control and integrates structures having small feature sizes. Traditionally a gap-fill material is usually coated in a thick layer, and then plasma etching is used to remove the extra gap-fill material above the substrate surface. We have developed a unique developer-soluble gap-fill material, BSI.G05013, which can be etched back in standard photoresist developer, instead of by plasma beam irradiation. By careful design of both the polymer and the formulation, our developer-soluble gap-fill materials fill vias and trenches on different substrates without void formation. Also, these gap-fill materials do not exhibit swelling or peeling problems during the developer etch-back process. Dissolution rate is adjustable by customizing the material with regard to the chemical structure of the polymer and the formulation composition. This new generation of developersoluble gap-fill material has broad process windows for bake temperature and develop time. The local bias between dense and isolated via areas and the global bias from wafer center to wafer edge are significantly reduced after develop back due to the dissolution rate difference between the bulk material and the material inside of the vias. Material is spin bowl compatible and does not precipitate in rinsing solvents. It is stable in storage conditions for a long period. Both dry plasma cleaning and wet developer cleaning can be used to remove the residual gap-fill material after processing. This new generation of develop-soluble gap-fill material, BSI.G05013 is robust and the process is economically favorable, which makes this solution convenient for planarizing surfaces.