The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) will include telescopes of three different sizes, the smallest of which are the Small-Sized Telescopes (SSTs). In particular, the SSTs will be installed at the southern site of CTAO, on the Chilean Andes, and will cover the highest energy range of CTAO (up to ~300 TeV). The SSTs are developed by an international consortium of institutes that will provide them as an in-kind contribution to CTAO. The optical design of the SSTs is based on a Schwarzschild-Couder-like dual-mirror polynomial configuration, with a primary aperture of 4.3m diameter. They are equipped with a focal plane camera based on SiPM detectors covering a field of view of ~9°. The preliminary design of the SST telescopes was evaluated and approved during the Product Review (PR) organised with CTAO in February 2023. The SST project is now going through a consolidation phase leading to the finalisation and submission of the final design to the Critical Design Review (CDR), expected to occur late 2024, after which the production and construction of the telescopes will begin leading to a delivery of the telescopes to CTAO southern site starting at the end of 2025-early 2026 onward. In this contribution we will present the progress of the SST programme, including the results of the PDR, the consolidation phase of the project and the plan up to the on-site integration of the telescopes.
The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) consists of three types of telescopes: large-sized (LST), mediumsized (MST), and small-sized (SST), distributed in two observing sites (North and South). For the CTA South “Alpha Configuration” the construction and installation of 37 (+5) SST telescopes (a number that could increase up to 70 in future upgrades) are planned. The SSTs are developed by an international consortium of institutes that will provide them as an in-kind contribution to CTAO. The SSTs rely on a Schwarzschild-Couder-like dual-mirror polynomial optical design, with a primary mirror of 4 m diameter, and are equipped with a focal plane camera based on SiPM detectors covering a field of view of ~9°. The current SST concept was validated by developing the prototype dual-mirror ASTRI-Horn Cherenkov telescope and the CHEC-S SiPM focal plane camera. In this contribution, we will present an overview of the SST key technologies, the current status of the SST project, and the planned schedule.
G. Pühlhofer, M. Barcelo, C. Bauer, B. Bi, J. Catalano, S. Diebold, S. Eschbach, D. Florin, C. Foehr, S. Funk, A. Gadola, F. Garrecht, G. Hermann, I. Jung, O. Kalekin, C. Kalkuhl, T. Kihm, F. Leuschner, A. Mitchell, M. Pfeifer, G. Principe, S. Pürckhauer, O. Reimer, S. Sailer, H. Salzmann, A. Santangelo, M. Scalici, T. Schanz, T. Schwab, U. Straumann, C, Tenzer, A. Vollhardt, F. Werner, D. Wolf
FlashCam is an innovative camera designed for the focal plane instrumentation of Cherenkov telescopes. The concept of the FlashCam trigger and readout system is based on the continuous digitization and digital processing of the photo detector signals on FPGAs, and on a high performance, Ethernet-based front-end readout. Because of the modular design, the electronics that have been developed can serve either photomultiplier tubes or silicon-based photon detectors. In the framework of the CTA (Cherenkov telescope array) project, the FlashCam team has developed a PMT-based camera that is suitable for the medium-sized telescopes. With over 100 Cherenkov telescopes, the CTA observatory will run the most sensitive ground-based telescope systems for TeV gamma-ray astronomy when the two arrays in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere (with three different telescope sizes) will go into operation in the upcoming years.
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