Submillimetre (submm) astronomy is the prime technique to unveil the birth and early evolution of a broad range of astrophysical objects. It is a relatively new branch of observational astrophysics which focuses on studies of the cold Universe, i.e., objects radiating a significant − if not dominant − fraction of their energy at wavelengths ranging from ∼ 100 µm to ∼ 1 mm. Submm continuum observations are particularly powerful to measure the luminosities, temperatures and masses of cold dust emitting objects. Examples of such objects include star-forming clouds in our Galaxy, prestellar cores and deeply embedded protostars, protoplanetary disks around young stars, as well as nearby starburst galaxies and dust-enshrouded high-redshift galaxies in the early Universe.A major obstacle to carry out submm observations from ground is the atmosphere. Astronomical observations in the submm spectral bands can only be achieved from extremely cold, dry and stable sites (e.g., high altitude plateau, Antarctica) or from space (e.g., the Herschel Space Observatory) to overcome the atmosphere opacity and instability that are mainly due to water vapour absorption and fluctuation in the low atmosphere. Chile currently offers the best accessible (all-year long) sites on Earth, where the precipitable water vapour (PWV) content is often less than 1 mm. Chile hosts the best astronomical facilities such as ESO VLT, APEX and Chajnantor plateau will be the ALMA site.At longer term, and particularly if global warming severely restricts the 200 -350 -450 µm windows on ESO sites, Antarctica conditions with less than 0.2 mm PWV, could offer an exciting alternative for THz/submm astronomy (Fig. 1). This is an attractive opportunity for the 200 µm windows, especially, which are normally explored with space telescopes (e.g., Herschel).Observations of submm continuum emission are usually carried out with bolometer detectors. Recently, two Research Departments at CEA (DSM/DAPNIA/SAp and DRT/LETI/LIR) developped filled bolometer arrays for the PACS submm/far-infrared imager on the Herschel Space Observatory, to be launched by ESA in 2007. The R&D was based on a unique and innovating technology that combines all silicon technology (resistive thermometers, absorbing grids, multiplexing) and monolithic fabrication. The bolometers are assembled on a mosaic 'CCD-like' array that provides full sampling of the focal plane with ∼ 2,000 pixels that are arranged in units of 256 pixels. They are cooled down to 300 mK to optimise the sensitivity down to the physical limit imposed by the photon background noise. The PACS bolometer arrays have passed all the qualification tests (Billot et al. 2006). The newly started ArTéMiS project at CEA Saclay capitalises on this achievement by developing submm (200 -450 µm) bolometer arrays with ∼ 4,000 pixels for ground-based telescopes. A prototype camera operating in the 450 µm 709 available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi