The ELT Phasing and Diagnostic Station (PDS), is a multi-purpose optomechanical system providing metrology tools to phase the segmented primary mirror of the ELT and hosting the sensors required to verify AO-assisted diffraction limited image quality at the ELT. The purpose of the PDS in the context of the ELT lifecycle is twofold. On one side, during the AIV phase of the ELT, the PDS will be the fundamental tool enabling commissioning of the telescope. On the other hand, during operation, the PDS will provide the essential metrology means to monitor performance and detect and isolate potential failures within the observatory. The project, which is one of the most important internal development endeavors at ESO, passed PDR in mid-2021 and underwent an optical final design review in late 2021, where challenges associated to the schedule were identified and more time was given to optimize the design. The project underwent a restructuring in early 2022 before starting its final design phase which has been successfully completed in 2023. In the same period all procurements concerning critical long lead items have been launched. The present contribution first introduces the project in the context of the ELT construction programme, outlining the project structure and the project management tools employed for planning and progress monitoring. Subsequently, the main system engineering processes used within the project will be described. Finally, we report on the main technical results obtained during the final design phase and the plans for the assembly, integration and test of the system.
The new 512x512 pixel large SAPHIRA infrared eAPD array is an extension of the earlier 320x256 pixel small SAPHIRA device, using the same 24 micron pixel design mated to a larger format readout integrated circuit. It was developed by Leonardo, in partnership with MPE, NRC and ESO. The first packaged test devices were completed in 2021. The bare ME1120 ROIC has been tested in the 64-channel mode at MPE with the ESO NGC controller. The possibilities and adaptations of e-APD technology to provide noiseless large format science grade arrays for long integration times are also discussed.
The European Southern Observatory gives the opportunity to develop new third generation instruments for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. Therefore, adaptive optics systems need to be upgraded, either for NAOMI on a 1.8-m auxiliary telescope or for MACAO on a 8-m unit telescope. It enables to access to new science cases such as active galactic nuclei with the GRAVITY+ project. We study here the requirements of such AO upgrade by increasing the number of sub-apertures of the wave-front sensor and the number of actuators of the deformable mirror. We evaluate the needs for a high-Strehl mode in the visible and near infrared wavelengths in various conditions of observation. We present numerical simulations to quantify the performance. We show that a moderate upgrade of NAOMI, and a significant upgrade of MACAO can enable both better dynamic range and sensitivity with the VLTI.
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Data processing, Image processing, Infrared sensors, CMOS sensors, Infrared detectors, Real time image processing, Data modeling, Telescopes, Analog electronics
In this paper, we present our concept of an on-the-fly image processing pipeline for ground-based telescopes. Our focus lies on the correction of undesired but unavoidable detector effects like persistence. State of the art systems like ESO’s NGC perform operation of detectors and acquisition of science data. Instrument operators monitor the science data stream during measurement. Detector issues like persistence worsen the image quality and impair the inspection tasks. To overcome these difficulties, we develop the real-time data processing system EIDAS (Enhanced Infrared Detector Acquisition System) as an add-on to the NGC. Therewith, detector effects in the raw image stream are corrected on-the-fly and astronomical objects are visualized more clearly for direct inspections. EIDAS accompanies CPU, FPGA and GPU as well as algorithms optimized for this hardware architecture. The system is designed generically, matching various types of detectors and their respective science data output
The Teledyne HxRG detectors have versatile and programmable output options to allow operation of them in a variety of configurations such as slow unbuffered, slow buffered, fast buffered or unbuffered modes to optimise the detector performance for a given application. Normally at ESO, for low noise operation, the detectors are operated in slow unbuffered mode. Whilst the slow unbuffered mode offers a simple interface to the external preamplifier electronics, the detector operation in this mode can suffer from reduced pixel frequency response and higher electrical crosstalk between the readout channels. In the context of the detector systems required for the first generation instruments of the ELT (MICADO, HARMONI and METIS), an exercise was undertaken to evaluate the noise, speed and crosstalk performance of the detectors in the slow buffered mode. A test preamplifier has been designed with options to operate a H2RG detector in buffered or unbuffered and with or without using the reference output, so a direct performance comparison can be made between different modes. This paper presents the performance advantages such as increased pixel frequency response, elimination of electrical crosstalk between the readout channels and the noise performance in the buffered mode operation. These improvements allow us to achieve the same frame readout time using half the detector cryogenic electronics and detector controller electronics for the ELT instruments, which significantly reduces the associated cryomechanical complexities in the instrument.
The scientific detector systems for the ESO ELT first-light instruments, HARMONI, MICADO, and METIS, together will require 27 science detectors: seventeen 2.5 μm cutoff H4RG-15 detectors, four 4K x 4K 231-84 CCDs, five 5.3 μm cutoff H2RG detectors, and one 13.5 μm cutoff GEOSNAP detector. This challenging program of scientific detector system development covers everything from designing and producing state-of-the-art detector control and readout electronics, to developing new detector characterization techniques in the lab, to performance modeling and final system verification. We report briefly on the current design of these detector systems and developments underway to meet the challenging scientific performance goals of the ELT instruments.
MICADO will enable the ELT to perform diffraction limited near-infrared observations at first light. The instrument’s capabilities focus on imaging (including astrometric and high contrast) as well as single object spectroscopy. This contribution looks at how requirements from the observing modes have driven the instrument design and functionality. Using examples from specific science cases, and making use of the data simulation tool, an outline is presented of what we can expect the instrument to achieve.
MICADO, the Multi-AO-Imaging-Camera and Spectrometer for Deep Observations, is one of the first light instruments for the future 40 m class Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). MICADO utilizes the advanced laser guide star multiconjugate adaptive optics system MCAO developed by the MAORY consortium and the jointly developed singleconjugate adaptive optics system (SCAO). We present an overview on the conceptual design of the MICADO Cold Optical Instrument (COI) which comprises the infrared focal plane imager with its 3 x 3 4k2 HgCdTe detector array and a compact cross-dispersing slit spectrometer operating in the spectral range of 0.8 to 2.4 μm. High contrast imaging is enabled via a classical configuration of coronagraph and Lyot stops. The paper summarizes the MICADO COI interchangeable optics, its cryogenic implementation together with the modular opto-mechanical configuration of the cryo-mechanisms and the cryo-vacuum cooling system, which consists of a continuous LN2 flow cryostat.
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