NGC Front-end for CCDs and AO Applications

摘要

The New General detector Controller (NGC) at ESO aims at single - handedly covering optical, infrared and wavefront sensing applications. However, the detector requirements for optical, infrared and Adaptive Optics (AO) have increasingly diverged in the past years, presenting challenges in the design of the electronics. This paper extends the description of the general architecture of the controller [1] towards the specific front - end electronics to drive and read-out CCDs both for optical instruments and AO applications. In addition, the adaptation of the NGC front-end to the future ESO CCD head for AO and the control of the L3 devices are presented.