Design, fabrication, and testing of lumped element kinetic inductance detectors for 3 mm CMB Observations

Kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) are a promising technology for low-noise, highly-multiplexible mmand submm-wave detection. KIDs have a number of advantages over other detector technologies, which make them an appealing option in the cosmic microwave background B-mode anisotropy search, including passive frequency domain multiplexing and relatively simple fabrication, but have suffered from challenges associated with noise control. Here we describe design and fabrication of a 20-pixel prototype array of lumped element molybdenum KIDs. We show Q, frequency and temperature measurements from the array under dark conditions. We also present evidence for a double superconducting gap in molybdenum.