Evaluation of Controllers and Development of a new in-house Controller for the Teledyne HxRG Focal Plane Array for the IRSIS satellite payload

TL;DR

This paper evaluates existing controllers for Teledyne HxRG Focal Plane Arrays used in the IRSIS satellite payload and introduces a new in-house controller, demonstrating its development and testing in a laboratory model.

Contribution

The paper presents the design, development, and testing of a novel in-house controller for Teledyne HxRG FPA, enhancing control capabilities for space-based infrared instruments.

Findings

Successful testing of the new in-house controller

Comparison showing performance of controllers in laboratory conditions

Development insights for future space instrumentation

Abstract

The Infrared Astronomy Group (Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics) at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is presently developing controllers for the Teledyne HxRG Focal Plane Arrays (FPAs) to be used on board the Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging Survey (IRSIS) satellite payload. In this manuscript we discuss the results of our tests with different FPA controllers like the Astronomical Research Cameras (ARC) controller, Teledyne's SIDECAR ASIC as well as our new in-house designed Array controller. As part of the development phase of the IRSIS instrument, which is an optical fibre based Integral Field Unit (IFU) Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectrometer, a laboratory model with limited NIR bandwidth was built which consisted of various subsystems like a Ritchey-Chretien (RC) 30 cm telescope, optical fibre IFU, spectrometer optics, and the Teledyne H2RG detector module. We discuss the various developments during the building and testing of the IRSIS laboratory model and the technical aspects of the prototype in-house H2RG controller.