Metrology Camera System of Prime Focus Spectrograph for Subaru Telescope

TL;DR

The paper describes the design and capabilities of a high-precision metrology camera system for the Prime Focus Spectrograph on the Subaru Telescope, enabling rapid fiber positioning with high accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a 380mm aperture metrology camera with a 50M pixel sensor that achieves 5μm positioning accuracy within 1 second, improving fiber configuration efficiency.

Findings

Fiber position accuracy within 5μm

Fiber configuration time less than 2 minutes

Whole focal plane coverage with one shot

Abstract

The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a new optical/near-infrared multi-fiber spectrograph designed for the prime focus of the 8.2m Subaru telescope. The metrology camera system of PFS serves as the optical encoder of the COBRA fiber motors for the configuring of fibers. The 380mm diameter aperture metrology camera will locate at the Cassegrain focus of Subaru telescope to cover the whole focal plane with one 50M pixel Canon CMOS sensor. The metrology camera is designed to provide the fiber position information within 5{\mu}m error over the 45cm focal plane. The positions of all fibers can be obtained within 1s after the exposure is finished. This enables the overall fiber configuration to be less than 2 minutes.