The Advanced L-band Phased Array Camera for Astronomy (ALPACA) will be a fully cryogenic phased array feed instrument operating from 1.3-1.7 GHz, providing an unmatched combination of sensitivity, wide bandwidth, and large instantaneous field of view. The instrument was originally targeted for installation at the Arecibo Radio Telescope but the tragic loss of the Gregorian platform in 2020 has led to a proposal to deploy ALPACA at the prime focus of the Green Bank Telescope. Here, we will report on the design and implementation of the antenna array, cryogenic vacuum vessel, signal transport and the digital back end.
We present the novel design of microfabricated, silicon-substrate based mirrors for use in cryogenic Fabry-Perot Interferometers (FPIs) for the mid-IR to sub-mm/mm wavelength regime. One side of the silicon substrate will have a double-layer metamaterial anti-reflection coating (ARC) anisotropically etched into it and the other side will be metalized with a re ective mesh pattern. The double-layer ARC ensures a re ectance of less than 1% at the surface substrate over the FPI bandwidth. This low reflectance is required to achieve broadband capability and to mitigate contaminating resonances from the silicon surface. Two silicon substrates with their metalized surfaces facing each other and held parallel with an adjustable separation will compose the FPI. To create an FPI with nearly uniform finesse over the FPI bandwidth, we use a combination of inductive and capacitive gold meshes evaporated onto the silicon substrate. We also consider the use of niobium as a superconducting reflective mesh for long wavelengths to eliminate ohmic losses at each reflection in the resonating cavity of the FPI and thereby increase overall transmission. We develop these silicon-substrate based FPIs for use in ground (e.g. CCAT-prime), air (e.g. HIRMES), and future space-based telescopes (e.g. the Origins Space Telescope concept). Such FPIs are well suited for spectroscopic imaging with the upcoming large IR/sub-mm/mm TES bolometer detector arrays. Here we present the fabrication and performance of multi-layer, plasma-etched, silicon metamaterial ARC, as well as models of the mirrors and FPIs.
This paper presents the current concept design for ALPACA (Advanced L-Band Phased Array Camera for Arecibo) an L-Band cryo-phased array instrument proposed for the 305 m radio telescope of Arecibo. It includes the cryogenically cooled front-end with 160 low noise amplifiers, a RF-over-fiber signal transport and a digital beam former with an instantaneous bandwidth of 312.5 MHz per channel. The camera will digitally form 40 simultaneous beams inside the available field of view of the Arecibo telescope optics, with an expected system temperature goal of 30 K.
This paper presents the results of the optical design tradeoff study that result in a reduction in complexity, size and cost of the structure for the sub-millimeter 25 m class CCAT telescope. Four optical configurations are presented; dual reflector Cassegrain and Gregorian options, and Gregorian Nasmyth and quasi-Nasmyth options. All configurations are shown to have diffraction limited performance.
We present the details of the optical design, corrector system, mechanical layout, tolerances, pointing requirements, and overall performance of the sub-millimeter wavelength Large Balloon Reflector telescope (LBR).
We describe the Short Wavelength Camera (SWCam) for the CCAT observatory including the primary science drivers, the coupling of the science drivers to the instrument requirements, the resulting implementation of the design, and its performance expectations at first light. CCAT is a 25 m submillimeter telescope planned to operate at 5600 meters, near the summit of Cerro Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. CCAT is designed to give a total wave front error of 12.5 μm rms, so that combined with its high and exceptionally dry site, the facility will provide unsurpassed point source sensitivity deep into the short submillimeter bands to wavelengths as short as the 200 μm telluric window. The SWCam system consists of 7 sub-cameras that address 4 different telluric windows: 4 subcameras at 350 μm, 1 at 450 μm, 1 at 850 μm, and 1 at 2 mm wavelength. Each sub-camera has a 6’ diameter field of view, so that the total instantaneous field of view for SWCam is equivalent to a 16’ diameter circle. Each focal plane is populated with near unit filling factor arrays of Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors (LEKIDs) with pixels scaled to subtend an solid angle of (λ/D)2 on the sky. The total pixel count is 57,160. We expect background limited performance at each wavelength, and to be able to map < 35(°)2 of sky to 5 σ on the confusion noise at each wavelength per year with this first light instrument. Our primary science goal is to resolve the Cosmic Far-IR Background (CIRB) in our four colors so that we may explore the star and galaxy formation history of the Universe extending to within 500 million years of the Big Bang. CCAT's large and high-accuracy aperture, its fast slewing speed, use of instruments with large format arrays, and being located at a superb site enables mapping speeds of up to three orders of magnitude larger than contemporary or near future facilities and makes it uniquely sensitive, especially in the short submm bands.
We have developed a fully cryogenically cooled, 19-element phased array feed (PAF), prototype camera for the
Arecibo Radio Telescope. The 19 PAF elements are dual polarized dipoles over a ground plane, and they sit
behind a 70 cm diameter vacuum window transparent to RF.
Low-loss lenses are required for submillimeter astronomical applications, such as instrumentation for CCAT, a 25 m diameter telescope to be built at an elevation of 18,400 ft in Chile. Silicon is a leading candidate for dielectric lenses due to its low transmission loss and high index of refraction; however, the latter can lead to large reflection losses. Additionally, large diameter lenses (up to 40 cm), with substantial curvature present a challenge for fabrication of antireflection coatings. Three anti-reflection coatings are considered: a deposited dielectric coating of Parylene C, fine mesh structures cut with a dicing saw, and thin etched silicon layers (fabricated with deep reactive ion etching) for bonding to lenses. Modeling, laboratory measurements, and practicalities of fabrication for the three coatings are presented and compared. Measurements of the Parylene C anti-reflection coating were found to be consistent with previous studies and can be expected to result in a 6% transmission loss for each interface from 0.787 to 0.908 THz. The thin etched silicon layers and fine mesh structure anti-reflection coatings were designed and fabricated on test silicon wafers and found to have reflection losses less than 1% at each interface from 0.787 to 0.908 THz. The thin etched silicon layers are our preferred method because of high transmission efficiency while having an intrinsically faster fabrication time than fine structures cut with dicing saws, though much work remains to adapt the etched approach to curved surfaces and optics < 4" in diameter unlike the diced coatings.
CCAT will be a 25 m diameter telescope operating in the 2 to 0.2 mm wavelength range. It will be located at an altitude
of 5600 m on Cerro Chajnantor in Northern Chile. The telescope will be equipped with wide-field, multi-color cameras
for surveys and multi-object spectrometers for spectroscopic follow up. Several innovations have been developed to
meet the <0.5 arcsec pointing error and 10 μm surface error requirements while keeping within the modest budget
appropriate for radio telescopes.
CCAT will be a 25 m diameter, submillimeter-wave telescope. It will be located on Cerro Chajnantor in the
Atacama Desert, near ALMA. CCAT will be an on-axis, Ritchey-Chrétien design with an active primary to
compensate gravitational deformations. The primary mirror will have 162 segments, each with ~0.5 × 0.5 m
reflecting tiles on a ~2×2 m, insulated, carbon-fiber-reinforced-plastic subframe. CCAT will be equipped with
wide-field, multi-color cameras and multi-object spectrometers at its Nasmyth foci. These instruments will cover
all the atmospheric windows in the λ = 0.2 to 2 mm range. The field of view at the Nasmyth foci will be 1°,
so CCAT will be able to support cameras with a few ×104 detectors (spaced 2 beamwidths) at λ = 1 mm to
a few ×106 detectors (spaced half a beamwidth) at λ = 350 μm. Single instruments of this size are probably
impractical, so we will break the field into smaller pieces, with a separate sub-field camera for each piece. The
cameras will require some relay optics to couple the fairly slow beam from the telescope to the detectors. A
reflective relay for 1° field of view is too large to be practical, so we plan to use a compact, cold, refractive relay
in each sub-field camera.
We present a first cut instrument design package for the proposed 25 meter Cornell-Caltech Atacama Telescope (CCAT). The primary science for CCAT can be achieved through wide field photometric imaging in the short submillimeter through millimeter (200 μm to 2 mm) telluric windows. We present strawman designs for two cameras: a 32,000 pixel short submillimeter (200 to 650 μm) camera using transition edge sensed bare bolometer arrays that Nyquist samples (@ 350 μm) a 5'×5' field of view (FoV), and a 45,000 pixel long wavelength camera (850 μm to 2 mm) that uses slot dipole antennae coupled bolometer arrays with wavelength dependent sampling that covers up to a 20' square FoV. These are our first light instruments. We also anticipate "borrowed" instruments such as direct detection and heterodyne detection spectrometers will be available at, or nearly at first light.
KEYWORDS: Error analysis, Telescopes, Image segmentation, Actuators, Control systems, Reflectors, Monte Carlo methods, Radio telescopes, Calibration, Holography
The Cornell Caltech Atacama Sub-millimeter Telescope (CCAT) is proposed to have 25m-diameter primary segmented active surface capable of diffraction-limited operation in the wavelength range between 200 microns to 1mm. The active surface design layout is composed of 162 "pie-shaped" segments, each fitted with three actuators that provide piston and tilt/tip control for segment positioning and orientation. We present a performance analysis for five types of segment positioning errors, e.g., piston, tilt/tips, radial and azimuth displacements, and twist errors. From these only the first two, segment piston and tilt/tip errors, are directly controllable by the actuator system. Segment tilt/tip motions may indirectly compensate radial and azimuth segment positioning errors. Residual segment twists introduce quadric phase distribution errors across the face of the segments that cannot be compensated by a simple 3-actuator/segment active surface control system. We have obtained Ruze's coefficients that relate the standard deviation of each segment positioning error type with the overall Strehl ratio of the telescope at 200 microns.
The Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope (CCAT) is a 25m-class sub-millimeter radio telescope capable of operating
from 300GHz up to 1.5 THz. The CCAT optical design is an f/8 Ritchey-Chretien (RC) system in a dual Nasmyth focus
configuration and a 20 arc-min FOV (diffraction limited imaging performance better than 0.31" at the edge of the field).
The large FOV is capable to accommodate up to 1200x1200 (Nyquist Sampled) Pixels at 200 microns, with better than
96% Strehl ratio. The telescope pedestal assembly is a counterbalanced elevation over azimuth design. The main
reflector surface is segmented and actively controlled to attain diffraction-limited operation up to 200 microns. A flat
Mirror located behind the main reflector vertex provides the optical path relay to either of the two Nasmyth platforms
and to a bent-Cassegrain focus for surface calibration. We present the imaging characteristics of the CCAT over the
20arc-min FOV at 200 microns at the Nasmyth focal plane, as well as the positioning sensitivity analysis of CCAT's
3.2m-diameter sub-reflector given in terms of the telescope optical performance, antenna pointing requirements and
sub-reflector chopping characteristics.
In the fabrication of high-performance, low-cost secondary reflectors for radio telescopes, it is a significant challenge to avoid introduction of low-order surface errors such as astigmatism or coma. This arises primarily because low-order surface errors are easily induced by support structure placement or simple thermal variations in the manufacturing process. It is, of course, possible to bring these errors to within the required tolerance, but if an active primary reflector is present, it may be possible to relax the requirements on the secondary and perhaps lower its cost. In this paper, we take the Large Millimeter-wave Telescope (LMT/GTM) as an example system. We model the effects of correcting a deformed sub-reflector by using the existing segmented active primary. The sub-reflector deformation patterns employed are low-order (e.g., astigmatism or coma), but are allowed significant excursions from the nominal surface figure. For each case, we demonstrate the best theoretical performance, using the active primary to correct for
the errors. Additionally, to determine whether such an approach would be practical, we also demonstrate the likely performance improvement that could be achieved using brief measurements on an astronomical source. In this approach, we introduce varying amounts of known low-order deformation patterns into the active primary and seek the combination that results in the maximum signal. Finally, we compare this result to the theoretical maximum and make recommendations on the practical utility of the approach.
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