AMICAAntarctic Multiband Infrared CAmera

Favio Bortoletto

INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova

on behalf of the AMICA collaboration

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

AMICA People

L. Corcione, F. Porcu

F.M. Zerbi, A. Riva, V. De Caprio, E. Molinari, P. Conconi

F. Bortoletto, C. Bonoli, M. D’Alessandro, E. Giro, D. Fantinel, D. Magrin

O. Straniero (PI), M. Dolci (PM), G. Valentini, C. Giuliani, A. Di Cianno, G. Di Rico, M. Ragni, D. Pelusi, A. Valentini

The Camera in Summary

• Near- and mid-infrared photometry (2 – 5.5 m and 7 – 28 m)

• Two independent channels

• Remotely operated

• To be mounted at the f / 21.65 IRAIT Nasmyth focus

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

• Standard broadband plus narrow band filter set

AMICA Optical Layout: Medium IR Channel

from

the

tele

scope

FM

PM1

Cold Stop and filters

positionPM2

Si:As BIB 128x128 array @

8K

Scale Reduction : 12.18 to 17.86 “/mm

AMICA Optical Layout: Near IR Channel

from

the

tele

scope

FM

PM1

Cold Stop and filters positionPM2

TM

InSb 256x256 array @

35 K

Scale Reduction : 12.18 to 17.86 “/mm

Detectors: 7 – 28 m 2 – 5.5 m

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

Si:As BIB MF-128 by DRS Technologies, Inc.

Field Coverage: 2.86 arcmin

Scale: 1.34”/pix

128 128 format

75 m pitch

Top 4 – 10 K

QE @ 8 K > 60 %

Well capacity = 9.1106 e-

RON @ 255 Hz frame rate = 282 e- r.m.s.

d.c. @ 8 K = 3.5 e- / sec / pixel

Maximum frame rate: 500 Hz

256 256 format

30 m pitch

Top 25 – 35 K

QE @ 35 K > 80 %

Well Capacity 2 105 e-

RON 50 e- r.m.s. (typical)

d.c. @ 35 K < 3 e- / sec /pixel

4 outputs

InSb array by Raytheon Corp.

Field Coverage: 2.29 arcmin

Scale: 0.54 “/pixel

AMICA the Cryostat

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

The AMICA Control System:

TEMP- CONTROLLEDAMBIENT

-10 c° / 10 c°

AMI CACRYOSTAT

- 40 c° / - 80 c°external temperature

NIRPRE-AMPCLOCK

BOX

MIRPRE-AMPCLOCK

BOX4.2 K40 K

cryo-cooler CRYO-COOLERCOMPRESSOR

DUAL-STAGESTEP-MOTORCONTROLLER

VACUUMPUMP

VACUUMCOMMANDED

VALVEP-GAUGE

TEMPERATURE&

STEP-MOTORCONTROL

TEMP- CONTROLLEDAMBIENT

-10 c° / 10 c°

C-PCI CRATEHOST PENTIUM CPU

NIR/MIR DETECTORCONTROLLER

LAKESHORETEMPERATURE

CONTROLLER & MONITOR

CONTROLPLC

PMC DETECTORCONTROL I/F

Sytem supervision is assured by a PLC interfaced to the CPCI host :

- vacuum system

- dual-stage cryocooler

- instrument temperature monitoring

- racks temperature monitoring

- cryogenic step-motors control

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

The AMICA Control System: CPCI Computer

The AMICA detector control electronics is built on a CPCI-Pentium host with a SKYTECH PMC array-control I/F. The PMC array controller drives via a dedicated fiber-link the analog unit providing detector biasing, clocking and video signal processing.

Secondary chopper drive and monitoring can be done by the detector controller sequencer or, off line, by a CPCI process.

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

MIR

simulation box

NIR

simulation box

Detector controller

The AMICA Control System: Detector Controller

1.2 Gbaud

Fiber Link

AMICA System Operation :

The AMICA detector-controller commanding will be possible from three

different sources :

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

“Local unit” (CPCI Camera Driver, Test)

“Remote UIF”

(Test, Commissioning)

- Build camera commands

- Build readout waveforms

- Configure detector tables

- Retrieve telemetry

- Retrieve data

- Quick look check

- Archive data

“Remote Command

Flow”

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

Commanding, camera configuration and data exchange is based on files. So the test operator interface can reside with simple files redirection on every networked computer.

Command and Data exchange :

ACCUMULATORI

ACCUMULATORII

RAMDISC

USERINTERFACE

COREMEMORY

CPCICOMPUTER

IMAGE BUFFERI

IMAGE BUFFERII

COMMAND FILE

TELEMETRYFILE

TELEMETRYRETRIEVE

BUILDCOMMANDS

RETRIEVEDATA

CONFIG.TABLES

BUILDWAVEFORMS

ANDPARAMETERS

TABLES

ETHERNET

The remote test Interface with the

acquisition software is based on the IDL-atv

standard interface

Boot MIR

Load bias table

Load clock table

Read Telemetry

Boot……OK

Bias table….loaded

Clock table….loaded

Telemetry…..

0.3

100

ON

10

0

Prova

The AMICA Test Interface :

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

Telemetry retrieval :

•Image data files are stacked in core memory buffers: object and sky for chopper assisted observations.

•Frames are then summed up following the selected readout mode (single, multiple sampl. Etc.) to build the final image accumulators.

•Images (buffers and/or accumulators) are retrieved by the remote UIF via Ethernet for quick-look analysis and archiving.

Telescope and Instrument Robotization at Dome C

Puerto Santiago, Tenerife, March 26-29, 2007

Object image stack Sky image stack

Star image accumulator Sky image accumulator

Scientific Data Organization: