Performance characterization of the near infrared detector system for RSS-NIR on SALT

摘要

We report on the status of the detector system for the Robert Stobie Spectrograph Near Infrared Arm (RSS-NIR) for theSouthern African Large Telescope (SALT). The detector is a HAWAII-2RG array with a 1.7 μm cutoff wavelength.The controller incorporates a Teledyne cryogenic SIDECAR ASIC board inside the dewar and an FPGA interface card,developed by the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), outside the dewar. Dataacquisition software written by IUCAA runs under a Linux operating system and communicates to the detector systemthrough USB to fiber optic converters for electrical isolation on the telescope. System characterization is performed atthe University of Wisconsin RSS-NIR Lab in a liquid nitrogen cooled test dewar. The test dewar contains a thermalcontrol system that emulates operation of the cryocooler used in the instrument dewar and maintains a stable detectoroperating temperature of 120 K. Light is provided to the detector with near infrared LEDs mounted inside the dewar.We present preliminary data on system noise and plans for further characterization tests.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.