All six of the final Science Grade Detector systems have now been shipped to the UK Astronomy Technology Centre to be integrated into the MOONS instrument. The MOONS Detector System work package began in 2017 with the initial design phase and procurement. A total of eleven detectors have been tested in this time, this included 7 x Teledyne H4RG-15 detectors in the latest FRSBE package with 2.5 µm cut-off material (1 x Multiplexer, 1 x Engineering Grade, 5 x Science Grade detectors) as well as 4 x LBNL fully-depleted CCDs (2 x Engineering Grades and 2 x Science Grades). At the same time, 3 new test facilities had to be designed and developed, CRISLER for H4RG detector testing, CEAT for MOONS detector cryogenic cable testing and a new test cryostat for the CCDs.
MOONS Detector Systems – All Science Grade Detector Systems are Shipped
Published: 15 May 2023
For the final cool-down, the MOONS instrument will have all the science detectors with their corresponding detector systems installed, in order to begin the Preliminary Acceptance in Europe phase. The detector systems include complex woven cable technology, cryogenic preamplifier electronics, even for the CCDs, and the latest generation of detectors, operating in a new hardware configuration to give improved performance.