DESHIMA 2.0 is a spectrometer for astronomical applications targeting sources at sub-mm wavelengths from 240GHz to 720GHz. The design for its wide band Quasi-Optical system was presented in the previous works. In this work, the experimental validation of the beam pattern of the system at the lower end of its frequency band is presented. The measurement for the complete frequency band of the system is ongoing and will be presented at the conference.@en

The grating design for the 4.7 THz channel of GUSTO (Galactic/ Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory) has been reported in this paper, which acts as a beam multiplexer for coupling a single QCL (Quantum Cascade Laser) beam to an 8-pixel mixer array. The design and analysis are based on modeling and simulations showing a successful accommodation of the requirements from the designed optical system. The asymmetric feature is used and to be applied for the first time at such a frequency range.@en

Microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) are the most attractive radiation detectors for far-infrared and sub-mm astronomy. They combine ultimate sensitivity with the possibility to create very large detector arrays, in excess of 10000 pixels. This is possible by reading-out the arrays using RF frequency division multiplexing, which allows multiplexing ratios in excess of 1000 pixels per readout line. We describe a novel readout system for large arrays of MKIDs, operating in a 2-GHz band in the 4-8-GHz range. The readout, which is a combination of a digital frontand back-end and an analog upconverter and downconverter system, can read out up to 4000 detectors simultaneously with 1-kHz data rate. The system achieves a readout noise power spectral density of -98 dBc/Hz while reading 1000 carriers simultaneously, which scales linear with the number of carriers. We demonstrate that 4000 stateof-the-art aluminium-NbTiN MKIDs can be read out without deteriorating their intrinsic performance.@en

Astronomical observations at infrared, sub-millimetre, and millimetre wavelengths are essential for addressing many of the key questions in astrophysics. Future ground- and space based observatories need large detector arrays with a sensitivity limited only by the noise of the radiation background. We demonstrate that antenna coupled Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors allow us to create kpixel large arrays with background limited sensitivity over the entire FIR/mmwavelength range. We discuss in detail the readout system and experimental results of a 961 pixel array, optimised for 850 GHz radiation that is read out with a single readout chain.@en