Thermal budget simulations and device performance of microstructured high-T/sub c/ transition edge bolometers on silicon

Silicon represents the material of choice for fast superconducting high quality transition edge bolometers. The performance of these devices sensitively depends on their thermal properties where the heat flux critically affects time constant, optical response and noise behavior. In this work extensive numerical Finite Element-calculations have been performed for various bolometer configurations, using the ABAQUS-code. A high degree of thermal isolation can be established through microstructuring techniques. The bolometric performance of a prototype device is compared with the simulated data. Values of the detectivity D* as high as 1/spl times/10/sup 10/ cm Hz/sup 1/2/ W/sup -1/ already should be feasible, while a time constant in the regime below 10 ms would be retained. >