Rockwell to build large IRFPA for astronomy
Sets of four IRFPAs will be "tiled" into 2 x 2 mosaic configurations giving 4096 x 4096 pixels. One of the 4096 x 4096 mosaics will be installed in the CFHT Wide Field Infrared Camera (WIRCAM) instrument on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and the other mosaic will be installed in the adaptive optics near-infrared imager on Gemini South in Chile.
Development of large format, high sensitivity, mosaic infrared sensors for ground-based astronomy is the goal of many observatories around the world. HgCdTe deposited via MBE on lattice-matched substrates provides state-of-the-art detectors with extremely high performance, enabling very high sensitivity astronomical observations deeper and deeper into the universe.
The HAWAII-2RG is RSC s newest and most advanced multiplexer circuit for astronomy. RSC designed this multiplexer to build the focal plane arrays for possible use on NASA s Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), which will be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The overall effort of developing the HAWAII-2RG multiplexer has been funded by NASA through the University of Hawaii.
"We are extremely pleased to have been chosen to make the focal plane arrays for these two giants in the ground-based astronomy community. These devices will enable new science observations that have not been technologically possible before," said Kadri Vural, Vice President of the Imaging division of Rockwell Scientific.
