Status of the SST Camera for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

TL;DR

This paper discusses the design and testing of the camera for the Small-Sized Telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array, highlighting its compact size, advanced photomultiplier technology, and recent development progress.

Contribution

It presents the final design choices and test results for the SST camera, advancing the development of high-energy gamma-ray observatory instrumentation.

Findings

Camera design is in the final stage with successful component tests.

The camera features 2048 Silicon Photomultiplier pixels with independent waveform readout.

The compact camera design is suitable for high-energy gamma-ray observations.

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array will be the next generation ground-based gamma ray observatory in the energy range from a few tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV. It will be built on two sites, one for each hemisphere, to cover the entire sky. The observatory will consist of telescopes of three different sizes: large, medium and small, with primary reflectors of 23, 11.5 and 4.3 m in diameter, respectively. The Small-Sized Telescopes (SSTs) will focus on the highest energies; at least 37 (and up to 70) will be deployed at the southern site in Paranal, Chile, covering several square kilometers. They will have a Schwarzschild-Couder dual-mirror design, with a primary reflector of about 4 meters in diameter. This configuration leads to a compact camera, with a diameter of about 50 cm and a weight of less than 100 kg. Its focal plane consists of 2048 Silicon Photomultiplier pixels, each one read independently by a state-of-the-art full waveform readout. The camera design is now in the final stage and the first components are being tested. In this contribution we discuss the design choices, and present test results from latest developments.