Detector Systems Engineering for Extremely Large Instruments

TL;DR

This paper discusses the engineering and development of complex detector systems for the ESO ELT's first-light instruments, covering design, electronics, characterization, and performance verification.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the design, development, and testing processes for the diverse detector systems used in the ELT instruments, highlighting new techniques and system integration efforts.

Findings

Design of multi-type detector systems for ELT instruments

Development of new detector characterization techniques

Progress in system verification and performance modeling

Abstract

The scientific detector systems for the ESO ELT first-light instruments, HARMONI, MICADO, and METIS, together will require 27 science detectors: seventeen 2.5 $\mu$m cutoff H4RG-15 detectors, four 4K x 4K 231-84 CCDs, five 5.3 $\mu$m cutoff H2RG detectors, and one 13.5 $\mu$m cutoff GEOSNAP detector. This challenging program of scientific detector system development covers everything from designing and producing state-of-the-art detector control and readout electronics, to developing new detector characterization techniques in the lab, to performance modeling and final system verification. We report briefly on the current design of these detector systems and developments underway to meet the challenging scientific performance goals of the ELT instruments.