Influence of the astrophysical requirements on dilution refrigerator design

摘要

A 300 K to 0.1 K space prototype is developed incooperation with CRTBT, IAS Air Liquide and RAL, under CNESand ESA contracts, to demonstrate the feasibility of such a coolingsystem. The heart of the system is a 4 K to 0.1 K open cycledilution refrigerator circulating 3He and 4He. All the tests are nowcompleted. The design of this system is chosen like the nominalsolution for PLANCKIHFI instrument. Since scientificrequirements have changed, the design of the prototype has to beadjusted to receive the focal plane of HFI (High FrequencyInstrument) instrument of PLANCK. The main goal is to optimise3He consumption without degrading both mechanical and thermal performances.This paper presents the prototype architecture, the dilutionrefrigerator and the associated tests. The suitability to PLANCKmission is also assessed.