Sub-mm-Wave Superconducting On-Chip Filter Bank for Astronomy

A superconducting on-chip microstrip filter bank spectrometer prototype for Far-Infrared (FIR) Astronomy is presented. The measurements showcase its capabilities towards moderate spectral resolution (
$f/\Delta f\sim 500$
) broadband FIR spectroscopy. In this sub-mm-wave filter bank, each spectral channel consists of an “I-shaped” microstrip THz bandpass filter that couples the radiation to a Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID) for a background limited detection and a scalable frequency-multiplexed microwave readout.