Cooling Tests of the NectarCAM camera for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

TL;DR

This paper details the design and testing of a cooling system for NectarCAM, a gamma-ray telescope camera, ensuring stable operation and protection of components in harsh environmental conditions.

Contribution

It introduces the cooling system design and presents test results from a thermal demonstrator for NectarCAM, a key component of the CTA observatory.

Findings

Cooling system effectively maintains temperature stability.

Thermal tests confirm system performance under operational conditions.

Design ensures protection against dust and water ingress.

Abstract

The NectarCAM is a camera proposed for the medium-sized telescopes in the framework of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the next-generation observatory for very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. The cameras are designed to operate in an open environment and their mechanics must provide protection for all their components under the conditions defined for the CTA observatory. In order to operate in a stable environment and ensure the best physics performance, each NectarCAM will be enclosed in a slightly overpressurized, nearly air-tight, camera body, to prevent dust and water from entering. The total power dissipation will be ~7.7 kW for a 1855-pixel camera. The largest fraction is dissipated by the readout electronics in the modules. We present the design and implementation of the cooling system together with the test bench results obtained on the NectarCAM thermal demonstrator.