Readout and cooling of the WINTER InGaAs camera

Danielle Frostig; Kevin B. Burdge; Kishalay De; Gábor Fűrész; Kari Haworth; Erik Hinrichsen; Viraj R. Karambelkar; Mansi M. Kasliwal; Nathan P. Lourie; Andrew Malonis; Robert A. Simcoe; Robert Stein

doi:10.1117/12.2630602

29 August 2022 Readout and cooling of the WINTER InGaAs camera

Danielle Frostig, Kevin B. Burdge, Kishalay De, Gábor Fűrész, Kari Haworth, Erik Hinrichsen, Viraj R. Karambelkar, Mansi M. Kasliwal, Nathan P. Lourie, Andrew Malonis, Robert A. Simcoe, Robert Stein

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12191, X-Ray, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy X; 121912N (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630602
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Conference Poster

Abstract

The Wide-Field Infrared Transient Explorer (WINTER) is a new time-domain instrument which will perform a seeing-limited survey of the near-infrared sky. Deployed on a dedicated 1-meter robotic telescope at Palomar Observatory, WINTER is designed to study transients of particular interest in the near-infrared including kilo-novae from gravitational-wave sources, supernovae, tidal disruption events, and transiting exoplanets around low mass stars with surveys to a depth of J=21 magnitudes. WINTER’s custom camera combines six commercial large-format Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) sensors, observing in Y, J, and a short-H (Hs) band filters (0.9-1.7 microns), and employs a novel tiled optical design to cover a >1 degree squared field of view with 90% fill factor. Each wide-format (1920 x 1080 pixels) InGaAs sensor operates at T = -50°C with a thermoelectric cooler, achieving background-limited photometry without cryogenic cooling. The tiled InGaAs sensors result in a wide field-of-view instrument with significant cost savings when compared to HgCdTe sensors. We present WINTER’s novel readout scheme, which includes custom electronics, firmware, and software for low-noise, real-time readout of the InGaAs sensors, including up to a 30x speed up of data reduction using GPUs. This work also outlines the cooling design for warm (T = -50°C) operation of the sensors with a two-stage thermometric cooler, copper heat pipes, and liquid cooling. We conclude with updates on the alignment, integration, and test of the WINTER instrument with a projected first light in Fall 2022.

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Danielle Frostig, Kevin B. Burdge, Kishalay De, Gábor Fűrész, Kari Haworth, Erik Hinrichsen, Viraj R. Karambelkar, Mansi M. Kasliwal, Nathan P. Lourie, Andrew Malonis, Robert A. Simcoe, and Robert Stein "Readout and cooling of the WINTER InGaAs camera", Proc. SPIE 12191, X-Ray, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy X, 121912N (29 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630602

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