Dedicated flexible electronics for adaptive secondary control

In the frame of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) adaptive secondary project, we developed a new dedicated electronics that controls the thin shell by means of 672 force actuators and capacitive sensor, while performing also the Real Time Reconstructor (RTR) computations. Within the adaptive optics system, the Slope Computer is also implemented using the same electronics, directly interfaced to the wavefront sensor CCD output by means of built-in fast parallel I/O channels. The system design has been tailored to balance the computational power, in the range of hundreds of Gigaflops, with an effective and time-deterministic real-time communication scheme. Diagnostic and maintenance are performed through an additional, fully independent communication line. Modularity, flexibility and remote in-system reconfigurability make this compact electronic suitable for real time adaptive optics control systems within a wide range of size and complexity, up to several thousands of actuators. In this paper we describe the general hardware and software architecture and the application results of this electronics within the LBT first light adaptive optics system.

[1]  Armando Riccardi,et al.  The adaptive secondary mirrors for the Large Binocular Telescope: a progress report , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[2]  Ciro Del Vecchio,et al.  The adaptive secondary mirror for the 6.5 conversion of the Multiple Mirror Telescope , 2002 .

[3]  Armando Riccardi,et al.  LBT adaptive secondary units final design and construction , 2003, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[4]  Roberto Biasi,et al.  LBT adaptive secondary units construction: a progress report , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[5]  John M. Hill,et al.  The acquisition, guiding, and wavefront sensing units for the Large Binocular Telescope , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[6]  Armando Riccardi,et al.  Adaptive secondary P30 prototype: laboratory results , 1998, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.

[7]  Armando Riccardi,et al.  Adaptive secondary mirrors for the Large Binocular Telescope , 2003, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[8]  Armando Riccardi,et al.  Adaptive secondary mirror for the 6.5-m conversion of the Multiple Mirror Telescope: first laboratory testing results , 1999, Optics & Photonics.

[9]  Armando Riccardi,et al.  Towards first light of the 6.5m MMT adaptive optics system with deformable secondary mirror , 2003, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[10]  Ciro Del Vecchio,et al.  A Study of an Adaptive Secondary Mirror , 1994 .

[11]  John M. Hill,et al.  Large Binocular Telescope project , 2000, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[12]  Simone Esposito,et al.  Integration and test of the first light AO system for LBT , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[13]  Roberto Biasi,et al.  Control electronics for an adaptive secondary mirror , 1998, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.