Electronics design and development of Near-Infrared Imager, Spectrometer and Polarimeter

TL;DR

This paper details the design and development of NISP, a versatile near-infrared instrument with imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry capabilities for a 2.5m IR telescope, including its electronic subsystems and control software.

Contribution

It introduces the comprehensive design and development of NISP's electronic subsystems, integrating cryogenic detectors, control electronics, and remote operation software.

Findings

Successful integration of H2RG detector with cryogenic cooling

Development of FPGA-based controllers for detector and ASIC

Implementation of remote control interface with GUI software

Abstract

NISP, a multifaceted near-infrared instrument for the upcoming 2.5m IR telescope at MIRO Gurushikhar, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India is being developed at PRL, Ahmedabad. NISP will have wide (FOV = 10' x 10') field imaging, moderate (R=3000) spectroscopy and imaging polarimetry operating modes. It is designed based on 0.8 to 2.5 micron sensitive, 2048 X 2048 HgCdTe (MCT) array detector from Teledyne. Optical, Mechanical and Electronics subsystems are being designed and developed in-house at PRL. HAWAII-2RG (H2RG) detector will be mounted along with controlling SIDECAR ASIC inside LN2 filled cryogenic cooled Dewar. FPGA based controller for H2RG and ASIC will be mounted outside the Dewar at room temperature. Smart stepper motors will facilitate motion of filter wheels and optical components to realize different operating modes. Detector and ASIC temperatures are servo controlled using Lakeshore's Temperature Controller (TC) 336. Also, several cryogenic temperatures will be monitored by TC for health checking of the instrument. Detector, Motion and Temperature controllers onboard telescope will be interfaced to USB Hub and fiber-optic trans-receiver. Remote Host computer interface to remote end trans-receiver will be equipped with in-house developed GUI software to control all functionalities of NISP. Design and development aspects of NISP Electronics will be presented in this conference.