An Update on MUSIC: A Kinetic Inductance Detector Camera for Sub/Millimeter Astrophysics at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory

MUSIC (Multiwavelength Sub/millimeter kinetic In- ductance Camera, formerly the MKID Camera) is a new facility- class instrument for submillimeter- and millimeter-wave astroph- sics at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The instrument utilizes microwave kinetic induc- tance detectors (MKIDs), coupled to slot-line antennae through lithographic bandpass filters, offering simultaneous imaging in four bands between 2 mm and 850 µm with 576 spatial pixels. The MKID technology naturally leads to implementation of a frequency-division multiplexing scheme, with several hundred detectors read out through a pair of coaxial connections and a single cryogenic HEMT amplifier. Room-temperature readout is handled with commercial software-defined radio techniques. MUSIC is a collaborative project between the California Institute of Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is due for commissioning in late 2010. This paper presents an overview of the project, and an update on the current status and latest results.